Help Anne-Marie Fight Lyme Disease: Your Support Matters

This is an urgent appeal to help me raise funds, to bring my wife Anne-Marie to Germany, to receive lifesaving treatment for Lyme disease.

My beautiful wife Anne-Marie is 36 years old and until becoming sick worked passionately as a social care worker. She has cared for and supported women and children fleeing domestic violence, survivors of the Magdalene laundries and children with special needs. She had a passion for helping people. Due to the severity of this illness Anne-Marie has been forced to give up her job that she loved and has been unable to work since becoming sick.

Three years ago, at 33 years of age, Anne-Marie was a very healthy and active person, she became extremely unwell very suddenly, experiencing problems with her heart, scary neurological issues, autonomic failure, immune system problems, memory problems, breathing problems, allergic reactions, severe insomnia and sleep apnoea, non-epileptic seizures, severe numbness and weakness throughout her body, horrific pain and developing musculoskeletal and connective tissue problems.

This illness progressed very quickly, and Anne-Marie went from hiking mountains and jogging to needing to be washed, dressed and fed by myself and her mam, she became so frail she didn't have the strength to put a jumper on herself or pull the blankets up over herself. She had severe light and sound sensitivity having to spend most days and nights in a dark room with noise cancelling headphones and an eye mask on, in pain and unable to sleep.

It has been a terrifying few years, visiting endless specialists, cardiologists, neurologists, immunologists, infectious disease specialists, gastroenterologists, sleep specialists, respiratory specialists, a general internist and many more, including an occupational therapist and numerous different types of specialist physiotherapists. Undergoing a cardiac rehabilitation programme, a recovery programme, using a breathing tool, 50 medical grade hyperbaric oxygen sessions and 2 years working closely with a specialist physiotherapist to regain the ability to walk up the stairs unassisted and shower independently.

Anne-Marie was finally diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and due to it being left untreated over the years, the usual antibiotic treatment distributed in Ireland for Lyme will not work. Therefore, she needs to go to a specialised Lyme clinic in Germany called Klinik St Georg. This is the only chance to get some of her life back.

We were told she had "symptoms that mimic a closed brain injury", "it's as if every system in your body has shut down", "it has attacked your nerves".

As Anne-Marie has been mostly bedbound and housebound for over 3 years now, the treatment in Germany could allow her to regain some quality of life back and even, hopefully, slow down the progression of the disease or at the very best it could possibly even stop it all together.

After 3 years and countless medical appointments and treatments our funds have been exhausted.

We would be so grateful if you could donate towards this treatment for Anne-Marie, and If you're unable to donate maybe you would share it with your own connections?

We need to raise €62,000 to get us to Germany for this treatment, your generous donations will go directly towards:

• Live saving medical treatment at klinik-st-georg

• Transport to and from the clinic

• Accommodation expenses during the treatment.

• Provide a carer to support her during treatment.

• Post treatment care and medication.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and support.

With gratitude,

Daire