A COUPLE who both have epilepsy have nominated each other for the Daily Echo Carer of the Year Award, supported by South-ampton Lions.

For Denise and Stephen Wottrich it was love at first sight when they met at a hospital's specialist epilepsy unit 13 years ago.

Five years later they married and now the couple, of Winn Road, Southampton, are both medically retired because of their condition.

Denise, 49, who spent 20 years working as a CID administration officer at Portswood police station, said: "We never know when a seizure will occur or what will happen when they do.

"Stephen is everything to me, my nurse, assistant, doctor and he helps me to communicate with the outside world.

"He literally picks me up when I fall. I love him so very much."

Her husband Stephen, 45, a former Ministry of Defence police worker, recalls how they fell in love straight away after their first meeting, and said that Denise had helped him to cope with his epileptic condition.

"We really do care for each other," said Stephen who can suffer up to ten seizures a day.

The Daily Echo is running the Carer of the Year award, featuring an adult and junior section, in conjunction with the Southampton Lions Club. Every year members of the Lions Club raise thousands of pounds to help deserving individuals and good causes.