Sarah’s story

We urgently need your assistance to get Sarah help!

By sending her overseas to a specialist clinic in 2023 we will save her life.

She has lost 14 years of her life from chronic illness. COVID has meant it has been even harder to aim to get her overseas.

She has lost the will to fight. Ending her life is a real option for her to escape her pain and suffering.

We can't lose her...we just can't.
Please help in any way you can.


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Sarah was once a fun-loving, caring and ambitious young woman full of energy. She has been fighting chronic fatigue and a host of other devastating medical problems after contracting Lyme Disease over 14 years ago. 
 
Sarah turned 27 in April 2007. In October of that year she was bitten by a tick near Bunbury, Western Australia, while conducting a site visit for her job as a Landscape Architect. 
 
At the time she didn’t think much of it but by January 2008 her health was rapidly declining. She was going downhill…and fast. It began with pain and fatigue, she’d go to work and come home and fall asleep as soon as she walked in the door. As this continued, it became harder and harder for her to get up the energy to go to work for a whole day. Robyn (her mum) had to move 2.5 hours from her home to live with Sarah so she could prop her up and support her while she continued to try and work.
 
Eventually, she just couldn’t do it anymore. She couldn’t work. She didn’t have the energy to see friends and there was no way she could participate in all the things she used to do and love. Eventually, she had to give up work completely and with that went her life.
 
Fast forward 14 years, she’s now 41 and she spends hours a day in her darkened, quietened room in bed trying to survive. She endures life by treating her pain with strong painkillers and a range of other medications. These don’t make her better, they just treat her symptoms and often have side effects. Her quality of life is non-existent. She doesn’t live, she survives…just. 
 
As she became more and more unwell, Sarah tried doctor after doctor, numerous medical professionals, specialists, different therapies, medications and supplements. 
 
In 2014, 7 years after her tick bite, Sarah’s blood was sent to a lab in Germany (for extensive blood analysis). Results showed a positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, a tick-borne bacteria that causes Lyme Disease. 
 
Unfortunately this diagnosis has not lead to an effective treatment and cure, largely due to the government and health care providers belief that Lyme cannot be acquired from tick’s in Australia.
 
So, despite a diagnosis, Sarah’s treatment has been inconsistent and piecemeal, with a tendency to treat each symptom and illness as it comes, rather than addressing the underlying cause.
 
Over the years Sarah has been diagnosed with a range of illnesses, including fibromyalgia, endometriosis, adrenal fatigue, discoid lupus and Myalgia Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) – all of which are debilitating and chronic as individual illnesses. And also associated with the initial Borrelia infection. Lyme Disease is known as ‘The Great Imitator’ – it can mimic the symptoms of so many diseases as the bacteria can enter and thrive inside many types of cells. It attacks different body parts and effects each victim differently. 
 
Having one of these illnesses would be struggle enough, but having such a collection is devastating. She suffers from chronic and unrelenting whole body pain, migraines, sleep disturbances, digestive issues, skin problems and debilitating fatigue. With this comes anxiety and depression. These have changed her from an independent, hardworking, beautiful young lady to someone bedridden and in unrelenting pain.
 
Those of you who know Sarah know that she’s a warm and caring person with an incredible amount of empathy and generosity towards those around her. She is always thinking of ways to make people feel loved, even as she has become more and more ill. Those that know her from her days at Busselton Senior High School or from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and St George’s College will remember how happy and easy going she used to be, that she laughed a lot and had a cheeky sense of humour. She was an active resident of St George’s College during her time at UWA, and her distinctive giggle was renowned among the residents as it would echo through the halls was contagious. She was also very talented and was thriving in her career as a Landscape Architect before she had to abandon work.
 
With such a complex health status, it’s been very hard (almost impossible) to treat in the Australian system. As such, we have completed extensive research and found a clinic that treats people who suffer with complex illness like Sarah in a holistic and intensive manner. The Swiss Mountain Clinic (formerly Paracelsus Clinica al Ronc) has been running for decades. It is world renowned and offers intensive treatments with expertise in integrative medicine. Treatments that are not available in Australia. Other Australian Lyme and complex health sufferers have visited this clinic and had success.
 
In her desperation to get better and try every treatment available, Sarah drained her savings and then all her superannuation. She is now on a disability pension, which covers the bare essentials. Our family have helped out where we can, but her mum and dad are on a pension. This horrific disease has drained our family energy and finances. Sarah’s world has shrunk considerably and she has lost a decade of her life, career and once hopeful future. All she wants is to be healthy and be able to work again.
 
The $52,860 we need for Sarah’s treatment in Switzerland will cover:
·      Airfares, trains and transfers: for Sarah and health advocate and support person to travel to Switzerland
·      Treatment costs: for 3 weeks at the clinic (includes accommodation)
·      Food and accommodation for travel
·      Travel insurance etc.
·      Additional medications and doctor’s appointments 
 
We understand and appreciate the everyday challenges that face so many families and individuals. We do not take this request for help lightly, but we have run out of options. She is now so ill, she has lost almost all hope and suicide is a real option for her. The hope of receiving a proven treatment in Switzerland that may allow her  to function again, is currently keeping Sarah alive.  
 
Please help her by giving whatever you can. The more people that know about these complex conditions and Sarah's story, the greater the impact, so please also spread the word by sharing this page with your friends and family. 
  

Thank you in advance for your generosity, it will save her life. We can’t do it without your help.

She’s too special to lose.