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The Charlie Foundation will honor Meryl Streep this September at the Third International Symposium: Dietary Therapy for Epilepsy & Other Neurological Disorders at the Chicago Hilton Indian Lakes Resort. The Charlie Foundation was founded in 1994 after twenty month old Charlie Abrahams, having endured multiple daily seizures, and failed every available anti-convulsant drug and one brain surgery, was cured of his epilepsy by the ketogenic diet at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The diet was undertaken despite resistance from the five pediatric neurologists he had seen. When Charlie’s parents realized that Charlie was but one of hundreds of thousands of children whose families were either not being informed, or being misinformed about dietary therapy, they started The Charlie Foundation. Meryl Streep, a friend of the Abrahams family, hosted a public serive announcement for the foundation in 1994, which can be watched in the video archive. In 1997, Abrahams and Meryl Streep produced the ABC television movie “First do no Harm”, fictionalising a particular case of a young boy with the disease. The film draws many parallels to the Abrahams family’s experiences. Several minor characters in the film are played by people who have been on the ketogenic diet and had their epilepsy “cured” as a result. The gala celebration honoring Meryl will take place on September 21, 2012.
