A birthday is always a cause for celebration, but for local teen Taylor Ritchie, turning 17 on Victoria Day was a definite milestone.
Taylor was diagnosed as a baby with intractable epilepsy, which sometimes causes daily clonic-tonic (formerly known as grand mal) seizures.
"She is at a high risk for what they call sudden epileptic death, and that's where children or people like Taylor with this type of epilepsy pass away in their sleep and they don't know why," said her mother, Corrine Ritchie. "So we live with that every day, not knowing if she's going to wake up."
Taylor's birthday wish this year was to hold a fundraiser for the B.C. Epilepsy Society, to help find a cure for the neurological disorder that can cause different types of seizures.
About 40,000 people in B.C. have epilepsy, and about one in 100 will develop the disorder within their lifetime, according to the society.
"There's so many people that have no idea what epilepsy is and maybe it'll be a good idea if many people know what it is and how to fix it,"
