My Story

I wanted to take the opportunity during Lyme awareness month to raise funds for Lyme Disease UK.

This is a cause that is very close to me as my wonderful wife has been afflicted with this disease for nearly 10 years. It is an invisibile illness that is under-researched and underfunded that has a huge physical, mental and emotional impact on your daily life that could effect anyone, it is commonly caused by a tick bite.

It's symptoms are vast and often severe, including but not limited to:

• brain fog: confusion, forgetfulness, lack of focus and mental clarity
• nerve pain: shooting pains throughout the body, can be isolated or widespread
• Pain/swelling in the joints
• loss of balance
• Chronic fatigue
• Stress and anxiety
• Inflamation
• Heart palpatations

The symptoms occur sporadically with no real trigger, some days are better than others but during a flare it can be completely debiliertating.

If caught early it can be treated and cured however for a lot of people this is not the case as testing is not common nor is it reliable as there is a high likelihood of a false or inconclusive results, often confused for other diseases such as fibromyalgia as they have similar symptoms. If untreated it can become chronic i.e lifelong and can be fatal.

Jess is classed as chronic Lyme, she has been offically diagnosed in the last 12 months having suffered with this disease for nearly 10 years. I have seen days where Jess is in inconsolable pain, confined to bed or the sofa unable to move with pain radiating around her body, struggling with speech and her memory. 

Jess remains the most positive person i have ever met, she celebrates the good days and takes on the bad with a smile, she has established herself as a patient advocate with a blog series and social media page for others struggling with invisible illnesses.

I want to raise as much as possible to further the research into this disease, there needs to be more prevelent testing, better treatment options and hopefully one day a cure for anyone in the chronic stage.

Please give what you can, if you can.