'I started uncontrollably shaking while playing football - the reason changed my life'

A young man has described the terrifying moment he started uncontrollably shaking while training for a football match.

Ben Carter suffered a seizure while in training with FC St Helen's in August 2022 and was later diagnosed with epilepsy.

The 22-year-old said he has little recollection of what happened before he was taken to hospital - but can recall his teammates all rallying round to quickly get him to hospital.

Join our WhatsApp Top Stories and Breaking News group by clicking this link

He told the Liverpool ECHO: “Everything from the seizure is blurry for me. I can remember having the convulsions and being quite jerky but I didn’t know what was happening."

He went through a series of scans and tests before receiving his diagnosis nearly a year after the first seizure. The diagnosis meant he was no longer allowed to drive a car.

Ben said: “It was very difficult on the day I found out. There was an initial shock of getting used to it, and I had to go back to not driving. I had to start taking medication, and getting used to the doses at the start was massive.”

Being diagnosed with epilepsy had a serious impact on Ben's mental health. He started to experience panic attacks and felt very different from the "confident and bubbly" person he was before. For a couple of months, he even stopped playing football, his great passion in life.

He said: “I hated playing football for a while. I almost didn’t want to be around that environment. Once I was playing and the adrenaline was pumping through me I was fine, but the build-up made me really anxious."

Ben has since resumed playing football on Sundays for The Griffin Inn FC. He said: “I need to play. I’ve always played, and that is where I get the majority of my