'I was Miss Great Britain contestant - now I'm bedbound and body shutting down'
A former Miss Great Britain has been left bedbound after contracting Lyme disease, saying she can barely leave her house.
Beauty queen Kirstie Haysman has been struck down with the debilitating illness - a bacterial infection often spread by bugs called ticks.
The 34-year-old, who has competed in Miss Great Britain and Miss London City pageants, began noticing symptoms in 2015 around the time she was crowned Miss Hertfordshire.
Doctors at the time told Ms Haysman she most likely had an auto-immune condition or some kind of infection, and, frustrated, she ended up venturing to Mexico earlier this year where bloods tests specifically for the condition came up positive.
Doctors failed to spot Kirstie's illness right away (Kirstie Haysman / SWNS)Now Ms Haysman, mum to daughter Harriet, 11, wants to raise awareness of the condition and encourage others who are suffering with mystery symptoms to get tested.
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Lyme disease causes high temperature and fever, headache, muscle and joint pain and tiredness and loss of energy. It can be treated with antibiotics within the first few weeks of infection, but leads to late-stage Lyme disease later down the line if not, meaning recovery takes much longer.
“[If the infection had been diagnosed] it could have cleared up in 28 days with antibiotics,” said Kirstie, from Watford. “Now my body is shutting down and my husband has to pick me up to use the toilet and have a bath.
Kirstie seen in bed (Kirstie Haysman / SWNS)“I was doing high intensity training before, I was very fit and it's now at the point where when I wake up my entire body is weak and hurts everywhere. I pray it gets better so I can walk around – I've been outside twice in last the six weeks, other than that my life is in bed. This all could have been avoided if they’d done a simple Lyme test.”
Kirstie began suffering with fatigue and pain in her joints in 2015, and after visiting a rheumatologist she says she was told she had a connective tissue disorder and prescribed a high dose of steroids.
Her health continued to deteriorate and Kirstie says her hands became ‘disfigured’ - leaving her with painful swollen joints and unable to pick things up.
Kirstie's swollen joints meant she had to give up her job as a chiropodist (Kirstie Haysman / SWNS)
She collapsed in A&E (Kirstie Haysman / SWNS)She says her blood tests didn’t show any problems, so doctors assumed she was suffering from an automimmune disease and tried to suppress her immune system - but Kirstie now believes this worsened her condition.
Long-term use of steroids to treat it also led to her bones deteriorating – with a rheumatologist telling her she had ‘the bones of a 70-year-old'. Since being diagnosed in February, she says she is still battling to find doctors who understand the condition.
Kirstie said: “I'm bedbound and I had to give up my job as a healthcare professional, I was a chiropodist and couldn't use my hands anymore. My daughter is going for a blood test for Lyme disease - doctors don't normally offer the test for under 16s but because it's in the family they've agreed to see her.”
She added: “I want to get the word out that if you have autoimmune conditions or rheumatic disease to get tested for Lyme. It’s so frustrating - in your mind you want to be working and socialising but you're stuck in body that can't work.”
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