Lulu and the Chamber of Health

My name is Lulu Ferguson (nee Louise Lodder) and I’d like to please take a minute of your time to tell you my story. It’s a story of how I went from being a healthy, happy productive member of society to merely existing, some days unable to even get out of bed. And the cause of this change? An insect. Yes, a little tiny insect that I wasn’t even aware of.

 

In August 2008 I moved from England to Perth as I was sponsored to come and work as a research scientist. Life was great. I loved my job, I made friends, I played sport and, as they say, I lived the dream. I didn’t know that my dream life was soon to change and nowadays I sleep for 16 - 18 hours every day and, when awake, I regularly forget common words, experience noise sensitivities and food intolerances, am in constant pain, struggle to control even basic emotions and experience a whole list of other symptoms that I won’t bore you with.

Hard though it is to believe, this change was due to an insect bite I didn’t even know I had. Apparently I was infected with the insect’s bacteria when it bit me and, while this was initially as trivial as it sounds, a road accident in November 2008 caused my body to suffer enough additional trauma that it no longer had the energy left to fight the infection and it started to win.

By 2012 we knew something wasn't right but didn't know how much worse I was going to get

My condition was able to deteriorate so much due to the length of time it took to receive a diagnosis. Once doctors realised that my symptoms weren’t directly accident related it took a further 8 years before someone was able to diagnose me with a ‘chronic systemic bacterial infection’, aka a lyme like disease. In Western Australia the Department of Health’s website mentions 1 tick-borne disease that symptomatic patients are tested for. By comparison, the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website lists 21 common tick-borne illnesses. To find a doctor that is aware of the other potential diseases and is then prepared to test for them has been an uphill struggle.

By 2016 I was no longer able to work and pretty much the only  reason I left the house was to do agility with one of my dogs

Due to the progression of the infection, there is now no simple cure, the best I can hope for is to again become asymptomatic. The one thing I have found that helps me do this is hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). The correct dosage of HBOT kills the bacteria and strengthens the immune system. In 2019 I tried 100 HBOT treatment sessions and the results were amazing. The brain fog started lifting, I could not only follow conversations but also had the energy to actually join them, short walks started to become possible, food intolerances disappeared, life started getting better again. To maintain my health, I then simply needed to have ongoing treatment of one session per week for life. It’s no exaggeration to say that it felt like there was finally light at the end of the very long tunnel.

There are suitable hyperbaric chambers here in Australia, but the Australian government does not recognise this form of therapy for this condition and so does not allow the use of its facilities. In Australia there is only one available treatment facility and that is on the east coast (2,250 miles away). In the UK there are over 60 oxygen therapy centres that provide this kind of treatment. The centres are available for anyone that wants to use them and they charge approximately 1/7 of the cost as the east coast centre. For these reasons I flew to the UK for my initial treatment, but this is obviously not feasible to repeat on a weekly or even annual basis, even once the borders are again open. Even if I was to move to the east coast, on-going treatment would be $12,500 per year for life (£6,800).

Receiving treatment in the UK - this was in a multi chamber (8 people in the chamber at once) and so it used a full rebreather mask

My plan now is to purchase a hyperbaric chamber and bring it here to WA so that I can use it to regain some quality of life and help others in similar situations. Evidence has shown HBOT to also be helpful in treating either the symptoms or actual cause of arthritis, autism, cancer, CFS, Crohn’s disease, fibromyalgia, migraines, MS, sports injuries, stroke and many more conditions. The use of HBOT for these conditions is considered by the government here in Australia to be ‘off-label’, hence there are no facilities for sufferers to even try it. Purchasing a chamber would mean that that I can change this situation and help to improve the lives of not just myself but also many others.

 

The cost of buying and shipping a chamber to WA, training up a couple of operators in its use and purchasing all the ancillary equipment required is approximately $85,000 AUD (£46,500). Due to my condition I have not been able to work for a number of years and I receive no benefits from the government. Try as we might, my husband and I are just not able to save this amount while on just one income. We have realised that the only way to make it happen is to ask for help and so this led me to starting this fundraiser in the hope that you might be able to assist. 

While I obviously can't become young again (wouldn't that be nice!) being healthy like this again is the target - this was in 2008 - 2 months before the accident

In addition to this go fund me I am putting on a couple of fund-raising events including a meal at a popular restaurant in a city suburb, a murder mystery night in a rural location and even a party on a boat. At each event there’ll be a chance to win prizes kindly donated by local businesses. Watch this page for updates on events and to see how the fundraiser is progressing.

Thank you for reading my story. This is a life changing piece of equipment that could help so many people and I really appreciate your help in making this possible. If you can donate, I’d be very grateful and even if you can’t, sharing this with others and following the facebook page would be a huge help. Click here for facebook page 

 

This campaign is being run in Australian dollars.  If you would prefer to donate in pounds sterling (GBP) then please follow this link
Click here for GBP campaign The running total shown is the combination of the two campaigns (there may be a delay of up to 24 hours in donations being copied from one campaign to the other).