Kelly’s Lyme disease alert
THE Osbourne family don’t have the best of luck when it comes to health. Mum Sharon has had a cancer battle, son Jack has MS and now daughter Kelly, left, has revealed that she suffered from Lyme disease for a decade. Initially, doctors thought she was epileptic as she suffered a seizure and they prescribed numerous medications – including anxiety tablets, on which she became hooked. Finally, she received a diagnosis in 2014. Lyme disease is a horrible condition. It’s contracted from a tick bite – but the tick itself has to be infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme. Because most ticks in Britain are not infected, there is a lack of awareness, and Lyme disease sufferers here may not be diagnosed until chronic symptoms have already taken hold. Then it can affect concentration, joints, memory, skin and the heart. Sufferers may experience symptoms similar to chronic fatigue, so it is hugely incapacitating. It’s thought to affect 2,000 people a year in the UK, but numbers could be higher due to lack of awareness. By far the best way to protect yourself is to make sure you remove any ticks as soon as you see the bite.
AN ENTERPRISING hospital has found a clever and patient-centred way to improve its balance sheets. Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust has launched a skincare range with profits going straight back into the health service. Its dermatologists developed the My Trusty Skincare range to treat patients with burns and scars in its clinics. Now it has produced a range of creams with the My Trusty brand, becoming the first NHS-backed skincare range available at high-street stores such as Superdrug and Tesco. The creams are suitable for anyone, including people with eczema, rosacea and acne.
AN EARLY Happy Birthday to the nurseled information service Ask Eve, run by gynaecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal. The service, offering free confidential advice and support to women worried or affected by gynaecological cancer, celebrates its first birthday next month, and is proving extremely popular. Get in touch by visiting eveappeal.org. uk/nurse or by calling free on 0808 802 0019.