A mother of four today entered the 10th day of a hunger strike in a desperate bid for specialist hospital treatment.
Christine Jennings, 43, of Strathmore Road, Hinckley, is now too ill to take some of her medication after refusing food since last Monday.
Today she said
she had been overwhelmed by messages of support from as far afield as the United States.
Miss Jennings believes she has Lyme disease, which has made her blind, bound to a wheelchair and reliant on daily steroids and strong painkillers.
She believes she contracted the disease when
bitten by a tick in Bradgate Park 10 years ago and is angry that her condition has not been acknowledged.
Miss Jennings, who is taking fluids, has taken the desperate step of refusing food to highlight her 10-year battle for treatment.
She has been referred to University Hospital
Middlesbrough, which specialises in diagnosing diseases which are difficult to detect.
However, she said she would not stop her hunger strike until she had received confirmation of an appointment.
Speaking from her bed, where she is being cared for by eldest daughter Rebecca, 22,
she said that, although comfortable, 10 days without food was beginning to take its toll and meant she could not take much of the medication she needed.
She said she had been overwhelmed by messages of support, however, and said the phone had not stopped ringing since the Mercury published
her story last week.
A website to promote her cause has also been inundated with e-mails from well-wishers, including Lyme disease sufferers from as far afield as the United States.
She said: "I've had more than 80 e-mails a day, mostly from people who suffer from the disease or
their relatives. We set up a web page and had 27 messages within the first half-hour."
Her advocate, borough councillor David Thorpe, said: "On Sunday, I received 104 e-mails. The response has been incredible.
He is now compiling a dossier of sufferers' testimonies which he will
forward to the department of health.
Mr Thorpe said: "The problem is there is no clear Government guidance. While their figures suggest there are only about 300 cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales, the message I am getting is the reality is much, much more.
"We are
campaigning for GPs to have information and support available to refer any suspected case, so sufferers can get the most appropriate treatment.
"It is unacceptable that after 10 years, someone has to end up blind and in a wheelchair. Despite three opinions from doctors specialising in Lyme
disease, Christine is still refused the appropriate treatment.
"For her, a hunger strike is nothing compared to what she's had to suffer already."
A spokesman for Hinckley and Bosworth Primary Care Trust said a letter had been sent to Miss Jennings telling her she has been
referred to specialist James Cooke at University Hospital Middlesbrough.
Miss Jennings's website is at:
http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/
Lyme Disease Action, Registered Charity Number 1100448, Registered Company Number 4839410
Home | Terms and Conditions | Site map