Lyme disease: The lives ruined by a bite from a tick

It's hard to overstate the impact Lyme disease has had on Vicky Hamlin. Once a keen traveller and athlete with a full social life, the 38-year-old says she rarely leaves her bed, hardly sleeps or eats, has lost her savings, her career and social life.

A bacterial infection passed on to humans by ticks, Lyme disease can be treated if detected early. Miss Hamlin, from Cheltenham, said it took years for her to get a proper diagnosis.

"I haven't been able to eat a proper meal in five years," she said. "I eat snack-size portions because my digestion has been severely affected."

Sleep is rare - maybe "twice a week" - and on a good day, Miss Hamlin can briefly sit in a chair. On a bad day, fatigue, pain and nausea means she can barely lift her head off the pillow. Multiple lung infections have made breathing a struggle.

It's a far cry from her life in 2016, when she thinks she was bitten by an infected tick in Peru or Thailand.

"Back then I travelled a lot. I ran the London Marathon, I cycled from London to Paris. I was never someone to just lie on a beach, I was always active.

"I would spontaneously hop on a plane to somewhere like Brazil. Now I can't go five minutes down the road without a wheelchair."

According to charity Lyme Disease UK, many people bitten by an infected tick can make a full recovery if diagnosed early. That was not Miss Hamlin's experience.

Because she had become ill overseas, it was first thought she might have a tropical disease.

Miss Hamlin was tested for hepatitis, malaria and dengue fever. Puzzled doctors then, she said, told her it might be a mental health issue.

After an Endometriosis diagnosis she had four surgeries, but the illness always returned. It was only four years after the bite that Lyme disease was investigated.

Miss Hamlin is now warning people to look out for the symptoms, and seek treatment early.

"If it's caught early, it can be treated with antibiotics. If it goes undiagnosed and misdiagnosed, which happens to a lot of people, then the testing in the UK isn't always accurate," she said.

"You have to have it done in Germany or the USA, they do far more in-depth testing."

She said her test, through a European medical body, confirmed Lyme disease years after a previously negative NHS test.

The cost of the disease has been financial as well as physical.

"I lost my career and I had worked for the same company for 10 years.

"My savings have gone and some of my mum's savings too. I had inheritance money from my grandparents and I'd been building up money to pay for a mortgage.

"I used to be the person that my friends would turn to for help. To lose my independence was a huge thing."

John Watling, a jeweller from Wiltshire, is training ahead of rowing across the Atlantic in 2024 to raise awareness for Lyme Disease UK.

He has a personal reason - his daughter Yasmin, 24, has struggled with a chronic form of the disease since being bitten by a tick aged 19.

Months after the bite, she became unwell with what Mr Watling, from Lacock, said were "flu-like symptoms".

After years of suffering, the ex-Cambridge University student has recently travelled to the USA for a first round of specialist treatment.

"Sadly she wasn't treated correctly [when first bitten], because there seems to be a certain amount of ignorance within the medical community in the UK, it feels like it's a little bit of a lottery when you first go in for treatment," said Mr Watling.

"We're not 'on it' in the UK. It's the USA that seems to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to the treatment," said Mr Watling.

He said his daughter's main symptoms are fatigue, painful joints and painful muscles, along with occasional cognitive struggles.

"Yasmin says that she feels every morning like she has got off a long-haul flight, that sort of jet lag feeling," he added.

In December 2024, Mr Watling and three others - Niall Brannigan, Sam Weber and Darren Wilcox - will take on the race branded the 'World's Toughest Row', across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Antigua in aid of Lyme Disease UK under the name Team Seasoar.

"I've never done anything like this before," said Mr Watling. "And if I do this, I decided it had to be for something special.

He says both he and Yasmin want to raise the profile of Lyme disease and generate money for research.

"It will be tough for me for six weeks out in the Atlantic, but for her, she's got this every day.

"Yasmin has told me we need to give people with Lyme a hope and a chance.

"The dream [as her parents] is for her to get her life back, and we haven't let go of that. We believe it will be there for her."

Lyme Disease UK says incidents of the illness are on the rise.

The charity says official estimates say there are around 3,000-4,000 cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales annually, but that the real numbers could be "at least three times higher".

It is estimated that around 10% of ticks in the UK carry Lyme disease

People heading outdoors should take tick repellent and a removal tool, avoid walking through long grass, wear light-coloured clothing to make ticks easier to spot and tuck trousers into shoes and wear long sleeves.

The symptoms of Lyme disease can vary, so it is important people are aware of them all, the charity added.

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]