Mr Dowland, from North London, said: “I never thought I’d be able to run a half marathon, let alone this. Their families will be waiting at the finish line.Īlong the way Freddie will need to sleep three or four times in the support car following them. He manages the conditions with medication, scheduled naps and healthy lifestyle choices, such as keeping a regular bedtime.Īt 6am on Saturday December 2, Freddie and his five friends will set off from their shared house in Bristol and run the 70km to Cardiff Castle. I was angry and frustrated.”įast forward 12 years and Freddie, now 21, is thriving at the University of Bristol, where he studies geography with innovation. “I started to lose social connections and put on a lot of weight. My life changed completely and I spent most of my time napping in the medical room. ![]() “I was put on all sorts of drugs, with some bad side effects. “It was one of the hardest periods of my life,” Mr Dowland remembered. People with narcolepsy experience extreme tiredness and ‘sleep attacks’, where they fall asleep unexpectedly.Ĭataplexy, which often accompanies narcolepsy, is sudden muscular weakness triggered by strong emotions such as laughter or surprise. His body was no longer making the hormone hypocretin, which regulates sleep and wakefulness – perhaps due to an autoimmune response from a recent chest infection. ![]() ![]() Eventually, aged 11, he was told he had the incurable conditions narcolepsy and cataplexy. Freddie Dowland is preparing for a charity fun run from Bristol to Cardiff Credit: University of Bristol/PAīut everything changed when he started getting “uncontrollable” bouts of tiredness.
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