An Ellesmere Port woman hopes to raise enough money to have a potentially life-changing operation to cure a digestion problem which means she cannot properly absorb food.
Hannah Leffler, 26,is raising awareness for gastroparesis, a chronic condition she suffers from which effects the digestive system. She has been unable to work for the last two years due to the illness, but at first doctors falsely diagnosed her as anorexic after she dropped two stones in weight in 2014.
Gastroparesis is a long-term illness which prevents a person’s stomach from emptying in a normal way and food passes through much more slowly.
In 2015, Ms Leffler was eventually diagnosed correctly and since then life has been tough, as she is sick on a regular basis and her only source of nutrition is through a feeding tube.
However, she is now fighting back against her illness with a huge fundraiser on April 23rd in a bid to buy medicine and finance the surgery which she hopes can help bring a cure.
Hannah told JMU Journalism: “The support that I’ve been getting has been completely overwhelming. I have been amazed by the donations I have received both on my page and towards the fundraiser. The prizes are incredible and so generous. It means the absolute world to me that I cannot put it into words properly. It is just amazing… I’m so grateful and it gives me even more fight to beat this.
YouTube: Hannah Leffler
“The surgery would be life-changing. I desperately need it for a gastric stimulator, which basically sends electrical impulses through my stomach to force it to contract and digest my food which at the moment sits in my stomach until I vomit it back either, within minutes or in a couple of days, but it will always come back.
“At the moment, I am hooked to my feed for 20 hours a day, and I have a long list of symptoms and side effects from medication, so the operation will help to actually give me my life back.
“I am deteriorating so quickly that without it, I will continue to get worse and will end up on TPN, which is where I’d be fed into a main vein to the tip of my heart, which is dangerous & can be life-threatening.
“The fundraiser is a family fun day at the Bull’s Head in Ellesmere Port. We are having a raffle with amazing prizes like signed Everton shirt and football and loads more.”
You can visit Hannah’s YouCaring page for more information on how to donate and help her cause.