Joy Mayfield was 14 when her "happy go lucky lifestyle began to change."

As she slept one night, the seventh grader began to shake violently. She awoke with foam around her mouth, blood vessels popped in her face and a general feeling of confusion. Although she wouldn’t understand until later what had happened, she had suffered a grand mal seizure.

Though such seizures can have other causes, the most common is epilepsy, a condition with which Mayfield was eventually diagnosed.

"I was forced to undergo numerous medical treatments and experiment with medications and dosages that would eventually control my seizures," Mayfield wrote at www.efof.org/joy-mayfields-story/, her page on the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida’s website.

"Luckily my seizures only happened at night while in my sleep, but at times I would go to school the next day after having a seizure, with a pounding headache, a bit light headed and disoriented. It was a sad, tumultuous time in my life but it has shaped the person that I am today."

That person is bright, optimistic and ambitious. She’s a regular visitor to Wolfson Children’s Hospital, where she offers herself as an example of how to live a good life despite epilepsy.

Before her senior year at Bartram Trail High School Mayfield was named 2016 Miss Jax Teen USA. In the Miss Florida Teen USA competition she was third runner-up and was named Miss Congeniality.

Knowing that she would be enrolling in Florida State University this fall, she competed last summer in Tallahassee and was named Miss Tallahassee Teen USA winner for 2017. In the Miss Florida Teen USA competition she was again named Miss Congeniality.

Epilepsy, she wrote, has taught "to be resilient and let things roll off my shoulders … People often tell me that I am true to my name, Joy, and I am well known by my peers for my happy dance."

Because epilepsy has been such a large part of her life over the last four years, Mayfield hoped that she might become a neurologist. But math and science aren’t her strengths, she said. So she now plans to major in communications with the goal of becoming a pharmaceutical sales representative.

Her own life was stabilized by Keppra, an anti-seizure medication developed by UCB, a global pharmaceutical company. Earlier this month UCB announced it was awarding 40 $5,000 scholarships "to people living with epilepsy, family members and caregivers to help them fulfill their dreams." Mayfield is one of the recipients.

Anyone wishing to apply for the 2017 scholarships should go to www.ucbepilepsyscholarship.com

Charlie.Patton: (904) 359-4413