Topic: UK Lyme Article: Battling Wendy is happy to help
CaliforniaLyme
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Battling Wendy is happy to help By Vivien Kandel Comment
COURAGEOUS BATTLE: Wendy Fox, who is helping others despite suffering from Lyme disease. Picture supplied A COURAGEOUS woman who grew up in Leftwich is battling a serious illness and helping others in a similar situation.
Wendy Fox, 38, lives in south Yorkshire but lived in Lime Avenue, Leftwich, with her parents Keith and Rosalind Mottram and brother Steve.
She is now suffering from Lyme Disease, is paralysed from the waist down and has been wheelchair bound for six years. Her heart and liver are damaged.
She has lost the use of one kidney, which needed surgery to isolate it, has also lost most of her peripheral vision and is registered blind.
Two operations have helped her heart to work a little more efficiently.
Sometimes she has breathing difficulties and has to use oxygen from a machine in her living room. She now needs full-time care.
Wendy went to Leftwich High School and Hartford High School and had a special love of animals.
The family enjoyed country walks and holidays in wild places, unaware of the dangers of ticks.
Ticks are tiny spider-like bloodsucking creatures, which can infect a person with harmful bacteria.
When she was 11, Wendy developed a bull's-eye' rash, a classic symptom of Lyme Disease but it was not recognised at the time.
Wendy was passionate about wildlife and successfully nursed many sick wild animals and birds.
At 18 she went away to train as a zookeeper. Unfortunately zoo animals carry ticks too. Eventually she became too unwell to work.
After many years of poor health, Wendy was finally diagnosed with Lyme Disease and several other infections acquired from tick bites.
But this has not deterred her from carrying on. She is married to Andrew and has a son Richard, 16.
Her mother Rosalind said: "Wendy has faced all her problems with great courage. She is determined to make something good come from her illness.
"She and some other sufferers of tick-borne diseases decided it was time people were made aware of the risk of becoming ill from tick bites.
"They set up a charity, now registered, called BADA-UK. This stands for Borreliosis and Associated Diseases Awareness. Wendy was elected director and chairperson.
"The charity has medics and other health and science professionals working with them voluntarily."
April 1 is the start of Tick Prevention Week which aims to warn the public of the dangers of tick bites and the diseases that they can pass on.
Rosalind added: "Wendy and her friends have worked hard despite their health problems.
"Their charity is doing a great job but has no grants to cover leaflet production costs.
"This is not just a story about her courage but about her determination to help others."
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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dontlikeliver
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Wendy is one of the most courageous people I know and makes my life look like a walk in the park.
She is so unwell yet works tirelessly to spread awareness.
Posts: 2824 | From The Back of Beyond | Registered: Oct 2003
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