Emma is full of love, compassion, and kindness. While her life has been anything but easy and normal, her resilience always shines brightly. Emma is a blue eyed, 6 ½ year old sweetheart, full of sass and spunk. No matter where she goes or who she meets she always has a smile on her face and love in her heart. Emma lives with her parents, Chris and Nicole Watson and is the absolute light of their life.

At 4 months of age, Emma had her first seizure that lasted over 30 minutes long. It was the first of hundreds to come. Emma has experienced many different seizure types over the years and has required more ambulance rides and hospital stays than you can count on two hands. At 1 year of age, Emma was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, for which there is currently no cure and has limited medication options. Emma has faced many challenges in her short life and has continued to amaze everyone by making progress and attending an array of therapies with sheer determination and a will to persevere.

Some of Emma’s seizure triggers are:

• fever due to infection or illness
• increase in body temperature not related to fever including cold/hot weather
• high air temperature even on overcast days
• physical exertion
• photo sensitivity
• emotional stress or excitement

In these 6 short years, Chris and Nicole have learned that Dravet syndrome and her disabilities will not define Emma. Her abilities are amazing, and they are so proud of the sweet little girl that Emma is. They celebrate ALL wins, whether big or small. While a cure may never be found during Emma’s lifetime, Nicole, Chris and other families hold onto the hope for more research, trials, and medications available to aid in seizure control. These children deserve better, much better. They deserve to be kids and the hope is that one day kids like Emma can enjoy a beautiful sunny day outside.