November Epilepsy Awareness Month: Meet Epi-Star JACKIE, Ambassador for Guiding Eyes & IBM Mascot for Neurodiversity
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIif-uk3MWedsCLaV_ylsOBAoYNMWSP652TRtIOn_tjH4RYkWEbBaKq4kpajxvJD4eh2Da5Q68McwTTwID3zaTgpFnO2thQd10sZIablIhZ8UMxfEuIuKyy-75TmHQ-lVNpmS7IPMjVEl2OU5bwQAJWwvDaNcJ-g1NLso6doJYYXlAUoqXBS1D_nGrjw/s16000/jackie%20in%20vest%20BLOG%20pngAA.png)
Epi-Star "Jackie" and Hu-Mom, Lorraine by Dorothy Wills-Raftery Lorraine Trapani and her Epi-dog “Jackie” are a pretty amazing pair. To begin this story, we are going back to when Lorraine was 16 years old, and she was diagnosed with Idiopathic Epilepsy and “had generalized tonic-clonic seizures for years.” Fortunately, she adds, “I’ve been seizure free for about 20 years (knock on wood.)” Lorraine, who works for IBM, had a very personal family situation start her on the path to Guiding Eyes for the Blind . In an IBM article she wrote titled, “Miracle on Four Feet,” Lorraine explains how after her husband, Michael, who was also an IBM employee “suffered a stroke during surgery which diagnosed pancreatic cancer. As a result of the stroke, Michael lost half of his vision in each eye, and I became his guide as we fought the cancer which would eventually take his life… the experience of witnessing his resilience, his compassion for