FOR most of her 40 years, Tracey Crittenden has had to live with the unpleasant side-effects of epilpesy. However, an innovative operation has now given her a new lease of life.

Tracey is a step closer to realising her dream of a life free of severe epileptic fits after an operation to remove a small part of her brain.

Ten months on, she has had no fits and her brain surgeon thinks the future is looking promising.

Tracey said: “I feel really strong knowing that I can go out there and get positive results in my life. I can now start making proper plans for my future.”

The 40-year-old care worker, from Winklebury, Basingstoke, is keeping her fingers crossed that she can carry on without the fits that have crippled her life.

Crucially, she no longer takes medication with tiring side-effects, and if she remains fit-free for another year, she may finally be able to drive.

Tracey, who has a young son, has suffered epilepsy from the age of nine. The cause is uncertain but at her worst, she has suffered more than five “grand mal” seizures a day. These later slowed down to about eight a month under medication.

Growing up, Tracey said she was subjected to bullying and prejudice, knocking her confidence and causing to her fail her school exams.

She said: “It made me feel ostracised from everyone. It always played on my mind”

This feeling of isolation continued in her working life. She said: “I never used to last longer at work than three months.”

She added her condition has also contributed to a breakdown in her relationship with her partner because he could not cope with it.

Neurologists diagnosed her with temporal lobe epilepsy, affecting the right hippocampus area of her brain. Unfortunately, this did not respond to anti-seizure drugs.

But her life was changed after she was referred to Professor William Gray, an award-winning surgeon who teaches and operates at Southampton General Hospital.

Prof Gray went ahead with a risky keyhole operation because he was confident it would not damage the normal functioning of Tracey’s brain. The surgeon removed a 3cm by 1cm section of Tracey’s right hippocampus, identified as the source of the epilepsy, The complex surgery, carried out between 15 and 20 times a year at the hospital, was expected to give Tracey a 50 per cent chance of being seizure-free or at least a 30 per cent chance of reducing her fits.

Speaking to The Gazette, Prof Gray said: “It is a complex operation lasting five to six hours. It involves going into the brain to remove and disconnect the area that is causing the seizures.”

If Tracey manages to be fit-free for two years after the operation, the likelihood is that her epilepsy will be banished from her life.

Prof Gray said: “It is a very gratifying operation for us to do, but more importantly it can make a difference to patients’ lives. It is like we are giving them their lives back – the change is of that magnitude.”

When Tracey woke up after surgery, she recalls feeling immediately hopeful. She said: “I wanted to give the surgeon a big hug.”