Lawgraduate’s lifesaving surgery bid
NATASHA SILVERMAN is engaged in a life-or-death race against time.
A degenerative condition has left the 29-year-old law graduate in constant pain and in need of lifesaving brain surgery.
Her family has already raised more than £15,000 through an online fundraising campaign, but a further £50,000 is required to fund just the first in a series of neurological operations — which can only be carried out by specialists in the United States — to reverse the effects of the condition.
Ms Silverman, from Parsons Green in south-west London, suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a lifelong affliction which stops the body from producing effective connective tissue — the glue that holds together everything in the body, from muscles to organs.
Her condition is particularly severe, affecting her heart, spinal-cord, neck, bladder, breathing and vision. In “excruciating” pain, she rarely leaves the house and admits that it is “becoming very hard not to just give up”.
She said: “I try and focus on the day that I can start my own family or achieve my dream of becoming a lawyer, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to see that as a reality for myself.
“TheexcruciatingpainIexperienceon adailybasisalsomakesithardtofeelthat life is worth living. I am in constant pain allovermybodyanditnever,everstops.”
Ms Silverman, who is a member of West London Synagogue, managed to Main photo: Natasha Silverman has to wear a brace and use crutches to walk. Above: with her parents on graduation day. Right: in happier times overcome her illness long enough to graduate with a first-class law degree last October from the BPP Law School, although she completed the last two years of her studies from her sick bed.
“It was virtually impossible to think through the level of pain I was in, and I was heavily clouded by medication that only ever made my symptoms just about manageable,” she said.
“I nearly gave up countless times, but I’ve never been so determined about anything. EDS had already taken so much from me that I felt I had to keep something for myself.”
She was able to attend her graduation ceremony at the Guil dhall i n central London, flanked by her proud parents Stephen and Melissa. “It was the most wonderful feeling in the world,” she said.
Mr Silverman, a 60-year-old retired business consultant, said it was “hard to putintowords”how“incrediblyproud” he felt in that moment. “I admit, I didn’t think it was possible. There is never a day where she isn’t in pain.”
Watchingherstrugglehadbeen“desperately hard”, said Mr Silverman, who added: “I’ve seen her in agony; I’ve seen her in tears from the physical effects of studying for her degree. But she would not give up.”
MsSilvermanattendeddramaschool and studied ballet up to the age of 16, failing to realise that her daily joint dislocations and severe fatigue were abnormal.
“It didn’t occur to me that I wasn’t supposed to find everything so painful and exhausting,” she said, recalling how at school, teachers had branded her “lazy”. She was finally diagnosed in 2012. “I don’t even know how much longer I’ll be alive,” she said. “I’m frightened that this may kill me before I have raised enough money for surgery.”