Letter: Negative image

TIM DOWLING'S "Man's world" (Real Life, 9 May) contained the lines: "I stood silently at the back of the shop, trying to look like someone who might be prone to fits." Such gratuitous and inappropriate statements only reinforce the negative image that surrounds epilepsy. There are more than 350,000 people diagnosed with epilepsy living in the UK, yet public awareness of this common physical condition remains low.

JULIE TICKLE

Joint Epilepsy Council, Edinburgh