This group was started by a wonderful woman who lost her son to epilepsy, and rather than let that cause her to crumble, she turned that energy into a group that has been in existence for more than 30 years in Albuquerque. This group is open to anyone with an interest in epilepsy, so family, friends, and even people just interested in learning more are welcome to attend.

From that group three people living with intractable epilepsy met at the local epilepsy support group, and discovered they had many of the same goals and ideas, and decided to organize further.

And created L.A.B Epilepsy. Although the story about LAB is really fun – (The three people who founded this organization help to make up the name of our first organization: Louise, Audrey, and Bill); called themselves a “research group” because throughout their journey with epilepsy,  they all felt like we are “doing research on themselves” – it has become very clear that people don’t fully connect with the old name and understand what they started. So to clarify the goals, they made the name change to coincide with our occupying office space in Albuquerque! We all still believe our neurologists are amazing physicians, but they don’t know what it is like to live WITH epilepsy. All other organizations work to cure epilepsy, and we hope to get there as well someday, but we believe that all of us with epilepsy still have a life to live while the cure is in the process of being found, so our focus became more one of Acceptance – learning to LIVE our lives WITH EPILEPSY as effectively, and positively as possible! It is our hope that we will be able to honor our friends and founding members through our continued work with epilepsy.

Audrey is a Licensed Professional Clinical Mental Health Counselor. She grew up having seizures from a very early age and was even told that academic success would not be possible because of seizures. However, despite the incorrect message, she went back to school, and not only was accepted into college, but went on to earn a Master’s Degree! 

Louise Hagan

Louise is a retired Registered Nurse, who worked for many years at a local hospital despite having seizures throughout her career. She is now focused on community activities while still spreading the awareness on epilepsy education.