My story begins in September 2015. My 17 year old daughter Jessica, had just achieved amazing results in her four AS Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Philosophy & Ethics and PE and was now about to embark on completing her A Levels in Y13 when started to feel unwell. After 4 weeks of constantly feeling tired, dizzy and nauseous, whilst still attending every lesson at school, she visited her GP who diagnosed vertigo and so she start a course of physio.

However, despite doing the advised exercises at home and attending some professional sessions, Jessica’s symptoms did not subside. Before long she had difficulty concentrating in her lessons, which inevitably affected her ability to retain what she was being taught. This was adding to her stress levels, as she needed conditional grades in her A Level subjects to gain a place to study Veterinary Medicine at University, and subsequently seemed to be making her symptoms worse.

Her 18^th birthday came and went at the beginning of December, barely enjoying the meal we had, although grateful to celebrate her special milestone. She went back to her GP, where she was then diagnosed with a more severe type of vertigo, BPPV. However
treatment still did not improve her symptoms and now unable to keep much food
down, she was losing weight.

On 29^th December, Jessica and I arranged an evening out to the movies to cheer her up. I parked the car about a 10 minute walk from the cinema. We set off and only 30 metres from the car, Jessica became very dizzy and vomited. She was determined to enjoy her evening so sat for a few minutes and then we continued walking. Twenty metres on, she became dizzy and was sick again. Unable to walk, I left Jessica sitting on the nearest wall with her head between her legs, whilst I ran back to get the car. We went home.

Early the next morning and over the course of the previous 15 hours, Jessica had consumed very little water and barely had the energy to stand. I took her to the GP, who upon seeing the state she was in made us an emergency appointment at St Georges Hospital A&E Dept. On arrival she was taken straight through to resus, placed on a drip, bloods taken, asked what seemed like hundreds of repetitive questions by different medical staff until they managed to stabilise her. The following evening, New Year’s Eve, Jessica was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a rare, potentially fatal condition where the adrenal glands cease to function. Addison’s disease affects approximately 1 in 10,000 people, which makes it roughly 300 times rarer than diabetes. Diagnosis is most
common between the ages of 30 – 50, and so for Jessica at only just turning 18, it was even rarer, possibly why she hadn’t been diagnosed by the GP earlier.

Addison’s disease is another name for ‘adrenal insufficiency’ which is a condition in which the adrenal “fight or flight” glands do not function properly to produce adrenal hormones. The adrenal glands are attached to the kidneys and produce a number of hormones, which are chemicals that circulate in the blood and regulate the way the body works. These hormones play a role in allowing the body to cope with stress such as infections or injury and also help maintain a normal blood pressure by keeping salt in our body.

In hindsight we now realise, when we arrived at A&E on 30^th December Jessica was going into adrenal crisis which is the life-threatening situation of this disease and requires immediate medical treatment. If had been another 24 hours before we reached A&E I dread to think what would have happened to Jessica.

Three years on, Jessica passed her A Level Subjects with A* in Chemistry, A in Biology and A in Philosophy & Ethics, she has her condition completely under control and is currently in her 2^nd year at Nottingham University studying Veterinary Medicine.

I am setting myself this 106km challenge, to raise awareness of this potentially fatal disease, as well as to empathise with the challenges my daughter experienced for 12 tough weeks; whilst still attending every lesson at school; before she was diagnosed with Addison’s disease. All funds raised for Addison’s disease will support members and people with adrenal insufficiency and will promote a better understanding of this rare condition amongst health professionals and future research.