Voices: “Mighty” Mike Simmel

Sports entertainer “Mighty” Mike Simmel suffered a seizure at camp as a teen, and later launched a campaign to raise awareness and “bounce out” epilepsy stigma for good

Former Member of the Harlem Wizards professional entertainment basketball team

Diagnosed with epilepsy at age 2

- National spokesperson for the Epilepsy Foundation

- Founder of the Bounce Out the Stigma Project

“People have to step up and erase this stigma.”

Epilepsy has shaped me as a person and taught me how to grow from adversity. God gave me this condition to spread his word and act in my mission to help others and guide young people to focus along their own paths. As a result I co-authored a semi-autobiographical children’s book entitled Mighty Mike Bounces Back.

When I was 16, I had a seizure at a basketball camp. The camp stated they wanted me to leave and go home. Most people would accept that and be dejected...I did not. I felt isolated, sure, but my parents fought so I could stay at that camp.

That experience motivated me to form the Bounce Out the Stigma Project in 2005, to provide basketball camps for kids with conditions like epilepsy, autism, ADD, etc.

I still like to consider myself a kid at heart…but during those years when I was younger, you’d never hear of epilepsy mentioned except by doctors. Now, thanks to the rise of social media and great organizations like the Epilepsy Foundation of America, Danny Did and CURE, the word can be spread and more funds can be raised.

People have to step up and erase the stigma around epilepsy so that it can be discussed more, fears can be erased and more research dollars can be put into treatments and a cure.

To learn more about the Bounce Out the Stigma Project, visit mightymikebasketball.com or bounceoutthestigma.org.