I sold my jewels to stay alive
SPALDING mum Michelle Lawson has been forced to sell her jewellery and other possessions to pay for life-saving medical treatment.
The 41-year-old has the rare and potentially fatal Lyme disease, diagnosed after suffering symptoms including paralysis and lung infections for four years.
She picked-up the disease after being bitten by a tick as she trained for a charity walk.
Now Michelle is pinning her hopes on antibiotics not available on the NHS and has been to America, where a doctor has agreed to treat her after tests for the disease proved postive.
She says a trial on the new drug has helped her greatly, but it now costs her 400 a month to fund the treatment.
Michelle, who lives in Fleur Drive with partner Steve Stenhouse, sons Jake and George and step-daughter Sophie, hopes that in 18 months the drugs will have the disease in a "manageable" state, but there is no cure and she will have to continue the treatment until a cure can be found.
In the meantime, she is being forced to sell many of her cherished posessions. Michelle said: "I am taking aggressive antibiotics which I am having to get into my system slowly.
"I am having liver and blood tests monthly to make sure my body is tolerating it and that I'm not endangering myself, because they can affect major organs.
"I have the ongoing support of my family and friends and we are somehow affording to pay for the treatment at the moment by selling things.
"Apart from the monthly cost of the drugs, I'm having to go to America once a year, which costs 3,500 every time.
"We've sold the car and the caravan, and I sold a gold necklace I had for my 30th birthday. It had a lot of sentimental value but I needed the money."
Michelle is improving slowly and is no longer in a wheelchair, but the disease affects different organs at different times.
She added: "I do feel better but it's a living nightmare. I never know how I'm going to be affected. It's a constant worry.
"Most people who die from the disease do so because it attacks their heart and it just stops."
Lyme disease is caused by a tick bite and Michelle believes she was bitten while walking through fields training for a charity walk along the Great Wall of China.
She added: "Lyme Disease is bigger than AIDS in America now and the cases are rising in the UK too but it is still not a reportable illness in England. I have become a 'professor' of this disease. I have to get rid of it and therefore have had to become knowledgeable.
"Now I am stuck into the treatment I feel I am at a stage where I can say it's hard but thank God it seems to be working."
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Weather for Spalding
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
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