Western Gazette
A Desperate Ilminster mother hopes specialists in America can diagnose the symptoms she has suffered for a decade. Michelle Rowland, aged 29, of Lower Meadow says a positive result from tests for Lyme disease could help end her chronic fatigue, headaches and heart problems. Her symptoms leave her unable to work and often struggling to get out of bed, making caring for her two children difficult.
She believes she contracted the disease, which is passed to humans from a tick bite, while walking at a park in Leicestershire ten years ago. Tests proved negative, but she was given fresh hope when she read a similar case in a magazine of a sufferer who sent her blood sample to America for analysis and it tested positive.
Mrs Rowland said: "I had a test done in the UK which proved negative and so I didn't think anything more about it.
"It wasn't until I read a magazine article about a lady in the same position as myself who had a negative test. She sent a blood sample to specialists in Lyme disease which came back positive."
The mother-of-two plans to return to Bradgate Park next month to walk across its 340 hectares to raise money for her campaign, a task she admits will be physically challenging.
"I'm quite restricted in what I can do, so that is about all I can manage," she said. "I urgently need to raise cash and can, hopefully, get people to sponsor me.
"I'm really concerned for my two little children and I want to be around to look after them. I'm worried something is going to happen."
Mrs Rowland believes it could cost up to £1,000 to send away her blood sample, which she cannot afford having been forced to quit her job at the Co-op in Ilminster due to her symptoms.
She said the events of ten years ago bore the hallmarks of Lyme disease. "I noticed this thing on my arm like an open sore and it gradually turned into a red ring. About a week later I got up and the first thing I had was a severe dizzy spell and the feeling of a bad hangover."
Mrs Rowland went to work but left early, suffering from dizziness, and went to bed hoping to feel better the next day.
"The next morning I couldn't open my eyes, I was absolutely exhausted."
She now stays at home, caring for sons Nathan, aged four, and Aran, seven months.
"I used to do a lot of sport but all I can manage now is to look after the children. The housework goes out of the window."