AN EPILEPSY charity has received more than £66,000 to help it create an app for children and young people with the disorder.

Yeadon-based national charity Epilepsy Action is creating the online tool with the help of funding from the Morrisons Foundation.

The charity will use the £66,404 donation for the third phase of its Children and Young People’s Resources Project, and will fund the creation of a new online tool for 16 to 24 year-olds. The latest cheque takes the total given by the Morrisons Foundation to Epilepsy Action to develop resources for children and young people to £104,077.

Helen Johnson, from the Morrisons Foundation, and Julie Wild, from the Yeadon store, presented the cheque to Philip Lee, the Chief Executive of Epilepsy Action.

The grant will fund a new online tool as part of the charity’s work to support children and younger people with epilepsy. The app will be free and accessible via any smartphone, tablet or computer, and will provide young people with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to manage their epilepsy. It will cover topics important to young people such as alcohol, staying safe when going out, talking to friends, independence and transition to adult services.

The charity has developed the app to address issues that are particularly relevant to young people with epilepsy, such as the transition from paediatric to adult health services, social pressures - such as going out and drinking alcohol - and stigma and lack of understanding from peers.

The Morrisons Foundation previously helped to fund Epilepsy Action’s work to develop resources for children and young people with epilepsy. This includes the charity’s Just for Kids animated videos, which were highly commended by the BMA Patient Resource of the Year awards in 2017. The charity’s Just for Kids website has also been nominated by the BMA for the 2018 awards.

The Morrisons Foundation supports charities making a positive difference in local communities. Since being launched by the supermarket chain in 2015, the foundation has donated more than £20m to help good causes across England, Scotland and Wales.

Epilepsy Action Chief Executive Philip Lee said: “We are delighted that the Morrisons Foundation have continued to support our work with children and young people. The Foundation’s support has already made a huge difference to the confidence of young children with epilepsy. This new grant will fund the development of a free app helping many thousands of teenagers and young people to live full lives with this condition.

“Epilepsy is the most common neurological condition in adolescence, and it can have a long term effect on people’s education, relationships and work. But many young people with epilepsy don’t get the support they need or don’t understand the information they are given. This app, which they will help to design, will give them back a sense of control over the condition.”

Helen Johnson from the Morrisons Foundation said: “Epilepsy Action provides important support for children and young people who have epilepsy. It was a pleasure to meet the team and we are delighted to be supporting their work.”

In the UK, around one in every 240 children under the age of 16 will be diagnosed with epilepsy.