Laetitia had her first seizure at 18 months. Complex partial epilepsy was confirmed when she was 3-years-old. School years were difficult and she was unable to obtain any diploma. Drug resistance meant many medication changes and trials, with frequent break out seizures after a few months and varying side effects (fatigue, irritability, psychosis, hallucinations, to name but a few). A
"I needed courage, strength and self-belief to have achieved so much", says Katrin Löhken, a 34-year-old Doctor of Natural Science. She finished her Doctoral Thesis last year in Research Center, Jülich, Germany (in collaboration Aachen Technical University). Having refractory epilepsy has not been any obstacle, but an extra challenge in her studies, which she has
Emily Hoover loves listening to music, riding quads in the desert, volunteering and making the most of each day. She was diagnosed with Generalized Epilepsy with Intractable Epilepsy. However, she doesn't allow her seizures to change her life and her family has learned to just be on alert and to be calm during a seizure. Emily has
Shenaz was a 19-year-old engineering student when she had her first seizure. She had to leave university since her seizures did not respond to medication. Two years later she took the very brave step to undergo temporal lobe surgery. During recuperation, Shenaz met patients from different cultures, age groups and financial backgrounds, each with a
Serene had her first seizure as a result of a high fever. She then had more seizures that were always associated to fever. Because of her parents' lack of knowledge about epilepsy she was never treated for her febrile seizures but these she outgrew by the age of 7. Then, during a mid-term college break
Sandra is now 41 years old. There is a family history of epilepsy: her uncle also had the disease but the family didn’t see this as normal. She often saw her grandmother and mother crying, because her uncle was financially and physically dependent. When she was 17 years old, she had an episode that would
In 2014 Rob Wierzbicki was the Australian recipient of The Outstanding Person with Epilepsy Award honouring Rob’s volunteer service to the Epilepsy Foundation of Victoria, spanning some 16 years. Rob was introduced to the Epilepsy Foundation Victoria when he was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 22. He attended seminars and obtained as much
I grew up seeing my parents struggle to make ends meet and told myself I had to study hard. I was an above average student and good at sport, representing my school in competitions. In June 1989, during training, I had a fall that resulted in a brain injury. It took a year before I
Hermes is 29 years old and lives in Blantyre, Malawi. He is the sixth born of a seven-children family. He has a wife, Ruth, and a young son. He suffers from convulsions and also has absence seizures. He has never seen a neurologist: his medical assessment and medication were provided by a nurse. “Due to my
Helia is 59 years old and has had absence epilepsy since she was 15 months old. Her classmates never made fun of her and she loved school. Her ambition was to study dentistry, but in the end, she joined the Chilean Naval Army as a telegraph operator, proudly graduating from training with honors, despite her epilepsy.
