?As a doctor, I think that, if you are in general practice, it means you like people. You want to hear what they have to say to you, you want to help them and finally you get a great reward when you can. By reward, I mean a great feeling. This occurs when somebody tells you that you have been able to help him/her.?

Brigitte Labat has been practising for more than 8 years by putting her friendliness and her readiness at the heart of it. Actually, she has always been fascinated by the world of medicine since she was 13 years old. She just enjoys her job as she feels it is a way of knowing people. Furthermore, she enjoys listening to people and talking to them.

The other thing that gives her the courage and pleasure to do her job is the presence of her two sons and her husband in her life. Brigitte was born in 1965 in Toronto, Canada and spent the first ten years of her life there. She did her secondary education in Rustenburg Girl?s High School in Cape Town. During her university studies in Cape Town she met her husband Vincent who was studying at the same University and who is today the managing director of Les Gaz Industriels. They got married in 1992 and have two sons ? Hugo, eight, and Alexis, five. ?I have prioritized my family. If you have children, it is great. But, being with them as much as possible is essential. I try to fulfil that by doing my best to be with them. And I feel really lucky and blessed to be able to do that.?

As she is fond of the sea, sailing and diving are her favourite hobbies, despite the fact that she does not practise them very often because she prefers to spend most of her free time with her children and her husband. Moreover, Brigitte is a great outdoor orientator. Thus she walks a lot around the island. During her holidays, she often goes out with her family to experience the local culture and nature. But reading is one other thing she enjoys doing, mostly magazines or articles on the Internet.

Brigitte has lived in various countries such as Finland, England and France where she got her ?diplôme de médecine subaquatique et hyperbare?. English is her first language. But she also speaks French and Afrikaans, one of the official languages in South Africa.

Brigitte arrived in Mauritius in 1993. And ever since, she has lived in several places in the north of the island. Right now, she lives in Pointe-aux-Canoniers and she has always felt at home here. ?Having lived in many places has been a great advantage to me, because it has taught me that any place is what you make of it! When I first arrived in Mauritius as an expatriate, a lot of people kept asking me why I didn?t go home again. And, right from the beginning, I told them ?I go home every night?. Home is where your heart is. I love here. Here is my home!?