Lyme Disease: Running Riot I’ve got it, you may have it too. This is a good time to be a tick with Lyme to share. You and I may bemoan the weirdness of the weather, but ticks love it. As the world gets warmer and wetter, they’re partying. 10 years ago, in the wooded valley I call home, we had two distinct tick seasons – from mid-March to June, and a shorter burst in the autumn. Last year I picked up my first in early February and my dog had his last in November, and they continued without a break right through summer. Ticks are the original muggers. They lurk on the tips of grass frond ..read more

On 24th September this year, Aaron O’Connell will be taking part in the Llanelli Half Marathon to raise awareness and funds for Lyme Disease UK. Aaron’s younger sister has unfortunately suffered with Lyme disease for many years through her teenage years. I want to spread awareness is because I have a younger sister who has suffered (and continues to suffer) for the last 8 years being pretty much housebound as a result of having Lyme disease. She was diagnosed late into her infection as the symptoms of Lyme are masked by so many other conditions. She is starting now, in her early 20’s, to get ..read more

Who would have thought completing a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) application form could be so  emotive? Currently reeling from the depth of feeling I am stirring up I feel compelled to scribble down my ramblings in an attempt to find some clarity. Up until now I thought I was handling life okay, taking control of the horrible situation we have found ourselves in but plodding along with the extra challenges. Yet I appear to have opened a can of worms, my usual strong and resilient self has been truly shaken, revealing an unexpectedly crushed and bereft self beneath. Putting pen to p ..read more

In March 2018, I had just started the job of my dreams and was feeling on top of the world. I had been working in woodlands all over the country for around 6 months, and just landed a brilliant new role which I was ecstatic about, and then I suddenly became catastrophically ill, almost overnight. It started with pain and numbness in my left leg, which gradually travelled up my whole body and became excruciating chest pain. I developed tachycardia when I laid down and suffered from complete insomnia, and in the space of around 2 weeks, I became totally incapacitated. I began to lose my memory a ..read more

Prior to 2016 I was fit, healthy, very active and worked long hours in a career I loved. I did charity events including running the London Marathon and cycling from London to Paris.   In 2016, I had an amazing year away travelling – I climbed Machu Picchu, swam in the MeKong Delta, rode a motorbike the length of Laos and slept in the Cambodian jungle. I fell ill in India and got myself checked out at a clinic in Delhi. I was given some medication and returned home.   I was in an extremely exciting phase of my life – I had a new job, a new flat and was looking forward to a f ..read more

In the summer of 2017 whilst pregnant with Gabriella, I was, as we later found out, bitten by a tick. At the time I experienced ongoing flu-like symptoms and didn’t notice a bull’s-eye rash. When I saw one of the GPs at my surgery, I was told what I had was likely due to back-to-back viruses. It wasn’t the GPs fault; unfortunately, there is a significant lack of training around best practice for spotting and treating Lyme (I have since pointed my GPs in the direction of Lyme-related CPD and they have attended)! I recovered from the acute illness and in November I gave birth to Gabriella, who ..read more

At the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, we are undertaking a new project ‘What makes viruses tick?’. This project aims to raise awareness and offer information on ticks and tick-borne diseases in Scotland. Ticks and the diseases they transmit have become an increasing concern in recent years for a couple of reason. Firstly, with more people accessing the outdoors due to COVID-19 travel restrictions more people are being exposed to ticks and potential bites. This is coupled with an increased risk posed by milder winters due to climate change, which may increase the time tic ..read more

I was a healthy, young 47-year-old enjoying life. A party animal, I was always first on the dance floor and last to leave until one morning I awoke with every bone and muscle hurting, an intense, deep crushing pain. Months went by without improvement, in fact I got worse. My symptoms included excruciating headaches, strange shooting pains, tingling, numbness, irregular heart-beat, face paralysis and total exhaustion. It got to the point where I was incapable of functioning. I was scared, you just know when something is seriously wrong. When anyone asked me how it felt I would reply, “Today it ..read more

I have been going to the doctors for two years now with various symptoms. Brain fog, dizziness, light-headedness, and, as charmingly scrawled on my notes time and time again, TATT (tired all the time). From October 2020, at the height of the pandemic, I had a urinary tract infection followed by a chest infection, followed by a urinary tract infection, followed by an ear infection! I’d had health problems previously, but they’d subsided as soon as my tonsils were removed in 2017, so I knew something was wrong. The infections were always treated when I visited the GP, but they never looked to f ..read more

On 24th September this year, Aaron O’Connell will be taking part in the Llanelli Half Marathon to raise awareness and funds for Lyme Disease UK. Aaron’s younger sister has unfortunately suffered with Lyme disease for many years through her teenage years. I want to spread awareness is because I have a younger sister who has suffered (and continues to suffer) for the last 8 years being pretty much housebound as a result of having Lyme disease. She was diagnosed late into her infection as the symptoms of Lyme are masked by so many other conditions. She is starting now, in her early 20’s, to get ..read more