A PEMBROKESHIRE mum who was a teenage front-line soldier in Northern Ireland is now fighting her own battle against the frightening illness which has ‘totally devasted’ her life.

Caroline Bridle, 47, from Saundersfoot is suffering from Functional Neurological Disorder – a condition causing random seizures, paralysis, chronic fatigue and visual, co-ordination and speech disturbances along with the associated pain, fear and distress of the symptoms.

“It’s horrific,” admitted Caroline. “It’s taken everything from me – my fitness, my driving, my working role.

“I used to run; now I can just about walk down to the village, and that’s on a good day. And people only see me when I’m having a good day.”

FND symptoms appear similar to those seen in neurological diseases such as MS, Parkinson’s and epilepsy, and can be just as debilitating.

The illness is a problem with the functioning of the nervous system and how the brain and body send and receive signals.

“Basically, my brain signals have gone to pot,” said Caroline. “The hope is that my brain can be re-trained to work as it should.

“There is no cure for FND, but people can be taught to cope.”

FND – the second most frequent reason for a neurology appointment – has multiple causes.

It can be triggered by physical injury, psychological or other trauma to the back or brain.

“Apparently, it also hits stronger people who stand up and fight – and that’s me,” said Caroline, who suffered a massive blow in 2014 with the death of her 18-year-old son, Daniel, from bone cancer.

With the support of her paramedic husband Richard; son Lewis, now 22, who is a medical student and daughter Nicole, now 19 and studying dentistry, she has fought to raise money and awareness for the Bone Cancer Research Trust and keep their beloved Daniel’s memory alive.

It was just three months after she had an anaesthetic for surgery in June 2018 that her first FND symptoms arose, with a seizure on the day after what would have been Daniel’s birthday.

Another subsequent seizure left her completely paralysed, alone in bed, for eight hours, and she now makes sure her phone is close at hand to enable her to call for help via its Siri virtual assistant.

Caroline added: “FND has also temporarily affected my memory, but I’ve been told that I won’t lose that long-term, and that’s what keeps me going.

“It’s been the highlight of my life, being a happy family of five, and I don’t want to lose those fantastic memories.”

Caroline has now identified help for her condition, with the backing of the FND Hope UK charity.

This will involve a month-long inpatient stay at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, where she will receive specialist physiotherapy and cognitive treatment.

But this is unlikely to happen within the next three years as it must be preceded assessment by seven different specialists.

“This sounds like a long time, but I was very lucky in that I was diagnosed from the beginning of my symptoms. The average diagnosis is eight years,” she revealed.

In the meantime, Caroline is taking the advice of FND Hope UK in meeting her illness head on, carrying on with her job in the Saundersfoot branch of Tesco and doing as much exercise as she possibly can.

She is now hoping to meet Welsh health secretary Vaughan Gething to raise awareness of the condition and point out the need for local funding for its sufferers, a number of whom are in Pembrokeshire.

“It is so unfair for the people of Wales that there are no facilities in this country to manage FND,” she said.

Caroline’s MP, Simon Hart, is also to write to the health secretary urging the funding.

He said: “Caroline has been incredibly brave. This is a terrible, life-changing event she is going through, but she knows how important it is that more people learn about this condition and the work of the charity.

“I think that Functional Neurological Disorder is at the stage that ME and even PTSD were about ten year ago – there was very little information and a lot of misconceptions about it.”

For more information, see www.fndhope.org

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