National Epilepsy Week 2022: Emily's story

To raise awareness during National Epilepsy Week, people treated at The Walton Centre have been sharing their experiences of epilepsy:

My name is Emily Lloyd and I am 32 years old. I was diagnosed as having epilepsy when I was 12 and have been diagnosed as having absence and tonic-clonic seizures. My epilepsy is not controlled and I still have seizures frequently.

My family are my biggest supporters and I value them so much for their help over the years. I had my first seizure holding my baby sister and since then she’s been my biggest fan, along with my little brother. My mum and my step-dad have supported me in every way, shape and form and I can never thank them enough. My boyfriend Craig has also taken in everything about my condition and does everything for me, from bringing me a McDonalds when I was in hospital, to pausing the TV after I’ve had a seizure, so I don’t miss anything!

I am currently in full time employment and I’ve had several seizures in work and my colleagues extremely supportive. Several people on my team have been trained in seizure first aid, so I always feel safe when I am working from the office.

I feel as though I have achieved a lot despite having seizures – I have a BA (hons) & MSc and I am still able to maintain a full time job, despite having seizures very often. I’m unable to hold a driving license, but I still consider myself as very independent. I use public transport frequently and I’ve had several seizures in public, including several on a bus and falling onto a train track.  

I make sure that my family and friends are aware of how epilepsy affects people and enjoy using social media to publicise the condition and make sure that people are aware about the different type of epilepsy and the different ways in which epilepsy and seizures can affect you.

More recently, I have been contributing to a piece of research with Janine Winterbottom which is based around developing a care pathway for women with epilepsy, as this is an issue which I’m very interested in. I’ve learned a lot and have enjoyed developing and conducting the research – including conducting interviews, focus groups and developing questionnaires which are user friendly. I’ve made sure that they are user-friendly and have felt very valued by the research team and their consideration with my condition.