Young Telford woman with chronic illness campaigning to raise awareness and funds for training and new facilities
My name is Sophie, I am 22 and from Telford. Last year I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS) - it can be an extremely debilitating condition.
Common symptoms include heart palpitations, tachycardia, breathlessness, fainting, temperature dysfunction and so much more. The biggest issue however is that it is extremely under-researched and most healthcare professionals don’t know anything about it or how to deal with it.
Unfortunately, PoTS is becoming more common due to Covid and we as a country just do not have the facilities to accommodate everyone. This is a condition that mainly affects young women however anyone can develop it at any point in their lives as it can be caused through trauma (mental or physical), viral infections, stress and more. On average it can take up to seven years to receive a diagnosis due to symptoms being put down to anxiety or dismissed by doctors due to this lack of research and understanding.
I personally have been struggling with a massive change in my health for the past two years. I was very lucky to receive a diagnosis last year; however, I have still not received any follow up care as there aren’t enough specialists and no one else will or can help me. I also have not been able to access any other medical help as doctors are reluctant to treat anything else as they don’t know enough about my chronic illness so I am regularly just told to go to A&E who also can’t assist me.
Before PoTS I was extremely active and was just completing my third year at university where I studied musical theatre specialising in dance, now most days I can’t even get out of bed. I have spent the past year since diagnosis being angry that no one is helping me and nothing is changing so I took it upon myself to make some change. I have started a government petition to fund training and facilities for those also struggling with PoTS. We have six months to get 100,000 signatures so that it can be discussed in Parliament, the title is "Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: fund training and facilities".
If you would like to learn more about this condition, head over to the PoTSUK official website as they are regularly updated and contain the most accurate information about the condition, see potsuk.org
