A teenage girl's death in Colorado is having an impact on children right here in our area.

Chelsea Hutchison died from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy back in 2009. She was 16. She died in her sleep from a seizure. Her mother, Julie, started the Chelsea Hutchison Foundation. Since its inception, they've given out 45 grants for seizure response dogs and more than a 100 monitors that alert parents about seizures.

"It's scary," said Chelsea's Mom Julie Hutchison. "We don't raise awareness to scare people. We feel strongly that we would have wanted to know so we could put some measures to monitor her at night either with a monitor or many people find the seizure response dogs really helpful."

Julie recently spent the day in DC. She's involved in a national effort to put SUDEP on the front burner.

Last September, Winchester held a Chelsea's Epilepsy Walk at Winchester Medical Center to spread awareness about SUDEP in our area.

"We're very happy that Julie was able to find time in her very very busy schedule to come to Winchester to see where 175 families and friends came out last year to walk and to raise awareness," said Steve Shafran, Chelsea's Family Friend.

Shafran is organizing the second annual walk this year. It's going to be a walk and run at Blandy Farm walk.

© Copyright 2013 TV3 Winchester / Gray Television Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.