A CHARITY run by a Crumlin mum has been awarded £25,000 after it collected more votes than 4,000 other organisations in a national competition.

Mum-of-three Sallieann Gould, of Hillside, set up Epilepsy Sucks UK three years ago to distribute free anti-suffocation pillows for people suffering with the condition across the country.

She set up the charity because her son Ben, 23, suffers from Lennox–Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. She is his carer.

And she said of the charity’s success in Aviva’s Community Fund competition: “Out of all the charities we had the highest number of votes. We had 14,000 votes, which was brilliant. It was absolutely amazing. It was a lot of hard work to do. I did a thunderclap which was really helpful and we got lots of support.”

Its pages were viewed by half a million people around the world. Ms Gould said a Ukrainian woman with epilepsy had contacted her to give the campaign her support.

And she said of the success: “It was unexpected but we pushed it really hard.

“We have already got 120 [people] on the waiting list. Part of the winning means we have to spend money by December. We did have a backlog of 120 so that’s £6,000 being spent straight away.”

The charity has sent out about 1,800 anti-suffocation pillows since it started and requires about £2,500 to keep up with demand from people around the UK every month.

It has won a brace of awards from another epilepsy charity, Young Epilepsy. In March 2013 Ms Gould was given the Young Epilepsy Champion over the age of 26 for the “tireless support she gives to parents of children with epilepsy”.

The charity has had backing from Cambridge United footballer Leon Legge, Denise Welch, Rob Brydon and EastEnders' Himesh Patel, who plays market inspector Tamwar Masood and Maddy Hill, who plays Nancy Carter.

For more information on Epilepsy Sucks UK, visit their Twitter page @EpilepsySucksUK or their website, http://esuk.uk.com.