'Lucky' Bay man faces up to brain awareness

Jason Napier knows he is a lucky man. Lucky to be enjoying life, but more importantly, lucky to be here.
"My life was hanging by a thread," he said today.
The Central Hawke's Bay 23-year-old is the national public face of Brain Awareness Week 2010 which starts on Monday and he knows how vital that grey matter atop the body is.
And just how important the support and devotion of people around him was as he faced his own mortality.
Last April, the fit and healthy Jason was rolling through life like any other focused young man until he was felled by a brain haemorrhage. It came on fast - as did problems with his vision as, unknown to him, the haemorrhage had begun to bleed and put pressure on his visual cortex.
The symptoms prompted his doctor to send him for a CT scan, and the result was chilling.
"We have found a bleed on your brain," the neurologist told him.
"All I could say was 'oh, okay'."
Reality quickly kicked in, and he realised he was in for a fight. And the fight is still going on, because while the surgery was a success he has been left with unpredictable seizures.
"It's an ongoing epilepsy but, fingers crossed, it may lessen. The daily medication sort of keeps it at bay but it can happen at any time."
But he is thankful to be alive to be given the chance to spread the word about Brain Awareness Week.
"These sort of things can happen to young and old - I think everyone knows someone who has been struck by a brain-related problem."