Hi! My name is Emily Bradshaw, I am 25 and am currently suffering with stage 4 endometriosis.
Endometriosis is a full body disease, where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows in other areas of your body causing damage to organs and leaving scar tissue. In my case, this is affecting my bladder, my pelvic nerves, my ovaries causing one to be fused to my uterus, and the whole front and back of my pelvis with deep infiltrating endometriosis noodles. It is also suspected in other areas such as my diaphragm.
This has left me in agonising pain every single day. The pain makes it difficult for me to walk so I now have to use crutches due to the sharp pain that travels down my leg. My stomach bloats 9-10 inches of it’s normal sizes and it hurts to touch and I struggle to sit down for long periods of times when it’s like this. I have constant nausea and brain fog because of this condition and struggle to get daily tasks done some days such as having a shower and getting dressed.
This condition has made me unfit for work in any capacity and I am worried about loosing my job which I love! No work also means no income for me as endometriosis is not classed as a disability even though it is extremely debilitating.
Endometriosis is highly under funded and unrecognised, with lots of myths about how to cure and treat it, because of this I have not recieved the correct treatment so far and have now been told because I have been left so long untreated it has spread aggressively and I now desperately need excision surgery by an endometriosis specialist, however the wait time is 2 years overall on the NHS and I have reason to worry that within the 2 years the endometriosis will spread further causing me to loose organs, leaving me no choice but to get it done privately.
Not only has my life been put drastically on hold for months on end, I am risk of losing my job and having to sell my possessions just so I can live.
I have been on some horrific medications that have awful side effects and have been having injections that put you through induced menopause along side Hormone Replacement Therapy, but I am still in constant pain everyday causing me to be in and out of hospital to try and get help managing the pain levels.
I have searched every avenue when it comes to treatments and getting better and this seems to be the only way to help me get back to myself.
I am hoping that I can raise the funds to pay privately for my operation and get my life back. This is an absolute last resort for me as I hate pleading for help, but after yet another really scary flair up, I feel I have no choice.
So please, if you can donate anything it would be really appreciated! If you are not in a position where you can donate I totally understand but if you could share that would be equally as amazing!
I will also be doing lots of fundraising events to spread awareness for this hideous disease and to help end the taboo around it! I was always told my severe symptoms were ‘normal’ and part of life for women and we just have deal with it, which made me so embarrassed to talk openly about it even with health professionals. I was often misdiagnosed and told the pain was all in my head, this effected my mental health so much and I would hate to hear of another person going through the heart ache of not being believed and being judged by doctors constantly. It needs to stop, and we shouldn’t be waiting years for a diagnosis (the average diagnosis time for endometriosis is 8 years!).
Thank you so much for reading, it means the world to me!
Emily x