By Mikayla van Loon
The Jai Reed Epilepsy Cup is returning for its third inaugural match up between Mount Evelyn and Wandin junior football clubs this weekend.
Under 17s players will honour former player Jai Reed, who died from epilepsy complications in 2018, by running out onto the field on Sunday 29 May to face off in a friendly rivalry.
Back on home soil this year at Mount Evelyn Recreation Reserve, the main event will be kicking off at 3.50pm but head organiser Anthony Burns said fundraising will be happening all day.
“We’re just going to try and raise as much money as we can, as we have done in previous years. We’ve got lots of sponsors on board this year with raffles and there’s going to be heaps of stuff there to win and donate to as well through the Epilepsy Foundation,” he said.
Mr Burns said going a little bit bigger this year, tin rattlers will also be attending the senior football games on Saturday in the hope people will donate whatever spare change they have.
With eight games being played across the day on Sunday, Mr Burns said there will be ample opportunity for people to buy a raffle ticket or donate to the cause.
A number of local businesses have come on as sponsors this year to provide raffle prizes, with meat trays, hair and beauty vouchers and cafe vouchers just some of the options up for grabs.
Although driven to support the Epilepsy Foundation and the Reed family after Jai’s death, Mr Burns’ daughter received an epilepsy diagnosis just days before last year’s event.
“It’s 100 per cent about awareness and just letting people know that it can be a deadly disease and people aren’t made more aware of it,” he said.
“It doesn’t discriminate between young people and old people as we know with Jai Reed.”
Since receiving her diagnosis, Mr Burns said his daughter has taken “ownership” of it and “she’s jumped leaps and bounds ahead” now knowing her seizure triggers, which has started to bring life back to normal for her.
“I knew what epilepsy was when young Jai passed away but I had no idea how many people are affected by epilepsy,” Mr Burns said.
“Each person has a different type of epilepsy. It’s not all just having a fit and passing out, it can be little things that can set off a seizure, like a light, or driving in a car with shadows cutting across the windshield
“And it doesn’t have to be lying on the ground having a fit, it might just be going blank for 10 or 15 seconds. That is still epilepsy.”
It is this knowledge of epilepsy that Mr Burns would like the community to understand, so the perception of it being “big and scary” can be diminished slightly.
Donations to the Epilepsy Foundation open on Thursday 27 May, otherwise donations can be made over the weekend.
“I just want people to get down there and enjoy the day, wear purple and bring a little bit of extra change. It doesn’t have to be too much but a couple of bucks just put into a tin or buy a raffle ticket and that goes a long way.”
It should be a competitive match between the two clubs, with Mr Burns expecting a tight clash for the cup.
“I think Wandin is out for blood because Mount Evelyn has beaten them two times now at the Jai Reed Cup and Wandin has a really good team this year.
“So I’ve got a feeling they’re going to push very, very hard to steal the cup off us but we’ll see how that goes.”
