The real-life 50 First Dates: 21-year-old woman living with constant memory loss shares her story

Remember that Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates, where his girlfriend (played by Drew Barrymore) would wake up every day with no memory of him?

It was a pretty funny movie – but for UK couple Megan Jackson (21) and Tara Sorkin (22), this is their life. And it’s no laughing matter.

Megan has a rare condition called functional neurological disorder (FND) which causes her to have seizures and memory loss. 

The seizures are triggered by extreme emotions – sometimes it’s laughter, sometimes it’s feeling overwhelmed, sometimes it’s something as simple as being surprised.

“I have seizures pretty much every day. It affects every part of my life,” Megan says. “Sometimes I forget who my girlfriend is, and that's terrifying. Sometimes I forget family members. It’s like my memory lapses.” 

Tara is devoted to helping Megan. She maintains a diary for her about what happened each day, they take trips to places they’ve been together, and she shows her pictures and plays her favourite songs to remind her of their special moments. 

“She's really good with it,” Megan says. “She writes diaries to me every day and keeps them in my notebook on my phone. It's like 50 First Dates – everyone refers to it like that,” Megan says.

“Sometimes if I come round [after a seizure] and someone says, ‘this is your girlfriend, Tara’, I'll be like, ‘what the hell – I'm not even gay’. I don’t believe that anyone knows [my sexuality] because I've forgotten. 

“The seizures are so scary. The doctors explained that my brain is like a computer with too many windows open and once you open another window, it just crashes. That's why my body has a seizure. That's how it deals with stress.”

Megan says she needs to constantly stay in a neutral state of mind as emotions can cause seizures.

There’s no known cause for the disorder, which is triggered by anxiety, depression or trauma and affects the way the brain receives signals from the nervous systems. 

Megan documents her day-to-day life and uses TikTok to create awareness on FND. On the social media app she explains how to manage it, what causes it – the psychological, biological and emotional factors – and how to offer support to someone with it. 

In many of her videos, Megan also shows her 340 000-plus followers exactly what happens when she has a debilitating seizure, and how she comes out of it. 

“I can cope with the seizures because I really don't have a clue what's going on when they're happening, but it’s the memory loss that’s the worst,” she says. 

Megan is trying to raise money on her GoFundMe page to get specialised treatment from private doctors. 

“I want to make more people aware of hidden disabilities. I want to be a voice for others going through what I am.”

SOURCES: DAILYMAIL.CO.UK; MIRROR.CO.UK; YOUTUBE.COM; MAYOCLINIC.COM; TIKTOK.COM/@MEG.JACKS;