We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nijel Thames a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nijel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

Definitely, being asked by my new Neurologist to do something creative like paint a picture or write a story. Of course, I’d taken the story route because I’m not the greatest artist. I began to think of what to write about and I believed that writing something similar to myself, especially my childhood, would be a little easier to put onto paper. That’s how my book Simon Has A Seizure came to be. I never thought that it would be given so much praise from the community. I felt accomplished and wanted to do more for the Epilepsy community.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Nijel Thames and I am an author of books that focus on the subject of Epilepsy. My most famous being Simon Has A Seizure due to its capability to being capability to an audience of all ages, including children, and teach them about the basics of Epilepsy and seizure safety. Leading the book to reach not only homes, but hospitals, schools, and churches around the country.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before writing stories I was an actor. I was being promised roles and doing voiceovers during the Covid-19 lockdown pandemic. All of that changed after I was asked to write a story for a neurologist that I was just meeting. I had received a message saying that everyone loved the book and that they were even going to have it published. Epilepsy then became my priority.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

The people that you associate with can make or break you and each has their own category. I found my family and friends that I’ve made to be a huge help when it comes to things that are not of my knowledge. Asking people for help is never something bad and in the end fans become your greatest driving force.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://epilepstories.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: Epilepstories
• Linkedin: Nijel Thames
• Twitter: NijelHT