A young woman diagnosed with CPRS – Complex Regional Pain Syndrome – is facing a race against time as her family battle to raise funds to send her to America for treatment.
The condition, also known as “suicide disease”, causes constant severe pain so bad that it forces many sufferers to considering taking their own lives.
Now the family of Amelia Martin have said that, without the treatment only available overseas, they’re not sure Millie will still be with them next year.
Amelia Martin’s diagnosis with CPRS
Millie, who is now 23, was 17 when she was first diagnosed. The teen – from Canterbury in Kent – spent five weeks in hospital before her diagnosis came, with her mum revealing her daughter told medics she felt like she was being “burned alive”.
Speaking to The Independent, Mrs Martin said: “Those five weeks were horrendous I’ve never felt so lonely so afraid and so useless. My daughter was screaming in pain begging me to stop it and I couldn’t do anything to console her or make it better.”
If we don’t do something, I know I’m not going to have my daughter next year.
Doctors eventually diagnosed her with CRPS, small fibre neuropathy – a nerve disorder – and an allergy which causes her skin to peel when it comes into contact with water.
Millie can no longer walk due to her weak limbs and suffers from muscle spasms. She experiences severe pain at just the slightest touch or change in temperature.
Her mum added: “If we don’t do something, I know I’m not going to have my daughter next year.”
What is the treatment that’s available?
Pain management treatment in the States claims to take pain levels from an eight or nine to a two or three. Mrs Martin added that the treatment is the family’s “only hope”.
The family need to raise £112,845 for the treatment, and more for her ongoing care.
Writing on their GoFundMe page, Mrs Martin said: “In 2017 aged 17 she was living her best life, studying her last year of A-levels, having driving lessons and deciding on all the wonderful things that she wanted to accomplish in her life… But the only dream she has now is to not be in this debilitating pain.”
She added: “I won’t let this horrendous condition take her life. The uncertainty is agonising but her strength, resilience and bravery give me the strength in continuing to fight with every part of me to make sure Millie gets her life back…the life that she deserves and so desperately wants!”
If you can help, donate to Millie’s fundraising campaign here.
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