Daniel contracted HSV encephalitis when he was just 5 years old. Now 37, he shares his story at the My Brain: My Story: My Family event.

Daniel, aged 36 years, is an Operations Manager for a Logistics Company and former Chairman, CEO and Founder of Arts2Life – Music UK CIC, a non-profit, a voluntary run organisation created to offer performance and promotional opportunities for emerging and unsigned musicians. Daniel contracted via Chicken Pox the Herpes Simplex Virus, aged 5.

“Although I was very young and don’t remember actually having encephalitis, having navigated through life for 31 years following it, I know I have had it. It is a part of me. It’s with me wherever I go, but it doesn’t define me or who I am. I consider myself, unique. I have always been “different” from others. Always outlandish, always the first to speak and last to stop. As a survivor, I use the term survivor loosely because frankly, no one survives encephalitis as the after-effects never go away, but, as someone who has, through trial and error, through embarrassment, through humiliation, through anger and unadulterated hatred learned to live, cope and succumb to the effects of encephalitis, I am proud not only of my achievements, not only for having some incredible people in my life, but proud to have been able to be simply, me.” Daniel

Published February 2025