Alex’s Story

I'm 17 years old and am in a grammar school sixth form. I was diagnosed with Vasovagal Syncope in October 2007, but had been fainting for about 6 years before that. I started to faint at school around the times of my GCSEs, but never during an exam, thank goodness. I thought it would hopefully cease over that summer, which it did, with a mere two episodes in six weeks. As soon as I started Year 12, however, things took a turn for the worse. I started fainting once, twice, then three times a day, and only at school. We then found out this was because of my being under pressure at school, what with a more intense workload, tight deadlines and extra-curricular activities. Fainting only got me behind, making this worse, and making me more stressed. Which lead to more fainting!

The people at school were so helpful, we had meetings with the head of sixth form and my parents, and together we came up with ideas to try and prevent an attack. My blood pressure is naturally low, which means I get very little warning before an attack, so they always need to be prepared for any tiny warning sign, such as going a little pale. They set up a care plan for me and gave me a diary to record my food, water intake and fainting episodes so we could try and work out a pattern. I can request a longer deadline if I'm under too much stress, and I arrange to copy up work I've missed from friends. Teachers are aware of what to do if I faint, and so, on the rare occasion I faint when alone with a teacher, they know how to help me.

My friends have all been amazing. Any time I faint, one of them stays by my head and coaxes me round, while another elevates my legs to help the blood flow back to my head. While I cannot sit or get up, a friend with a free period will sit with me, and by holding a normal conversation with me, I almost forget about the episode. I felt the effect of this most during an episode that occurred when I was alone, and, by the time they had found me an hour later, I was sitting on the floor, an emotional wreck. Without them with me, I don't know how I would cope with it. 

I think the hardest thing about this is that people suggest, sometimes directly to me, that I'm faking it for attention. These people don't understand the condition; they don't understand how I can be fainting so much around school and not at home. I then remind them of times I've fainted down the stairs, or times when I've hit my head as I've gone down. What they really don't understand is that I hate the attention it gets, and that I'd so much rather be normal. People other than my friends started to use me as an excuse to get out of lessons, which was just infuriating. Now there's a system, it's so much better.

I'm treated no differently from any other pupil, and I feel I have the best support from the best friends anyone could have. Considering the circumstances, I've been told that I'm a surprisingly positive person, and it's only because of the people around me that this is possible.