A WOMAN brought to the brink of suicide by chronic illness is now making a desperate plea for help to travel to Mexico for treatment.

Yen Lau says her life has been ruined by Lyme disease after she was bitten twice by ticks two years apart.

From an active, busy life as a young professional, the 32-year-old ended up bedridden and now says she has more than 40 different symptoms, including chronic pain and fatigue.

The 32-year-old said: “I have good days and extreme lows but the suffering I go through is truly unimaginable.

“I am not sure I have the strength to go through this emotionally or physically. I feel I am just living a quarter-life.

“I am on a lot of Lyme forums and the Mexican clinic had been mentioned a few times.

READ MORE: What is Lyme disease and how is it carried?

“I private messaged people on Facebook who had been treated there to ask them about it before phoning the clinic for more information.

“I had phone calls from people as far away as California to talk to me about it and I really believe this is my best hope.”

Yen’s downward spiral began two years ago when she was camping at Loch Lomond and was bitten by a tick.

Although she had no immediate symptoms – common with the illness – six weeks later she fell seriously ill and said she felt like a “prisoner in my own body”.

Yen said: “I went from having such an amazing adventurous life. I was a happy, optimistic and bubbly character who loved and lived life to the fullest.

“I was working full time as a business manager and makeup artist to all of a sudden my whole world collapsing in front of my eyes and all I could do was watch and endure the psychical torture.

“I was left completely bedridden for months and in need of a wheelchair for my bad days.”

Yen needed her sister to wash her and help her to the bathroom because she was too weak to move.

She says it took time before she was given a diagnosis of Lyme disease, having had eight different diagnoses and having seen more than 50 GPs.

Two months ago Yen, from Baillieston, went on a specialist retreat in Crete where she received support with her symptoms.

She said: “I was feeling semi-normal; it was amazing, I was smiling from ear to ear, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world and thought this might be my second chance at life.

“On the last day of the retreat, I looked down on my right arm and there it was again.

READ MORE: It took doctors two years to diagnose my Lyme disease

“A bullseye rash with a tick stuck in my arm. Even then I tried to remain calm and positive until the symptoms came back and knocked me down.”

Yen says this second tick bite has left her taking heart medications, Parkinson’s medication, steroids, thyroid medication, the painkiller Tramadol and medicine for her immune system, among others.

According to the NHS Lyme disease can be easily treated with antibiotics if it is diagnosed immediately.

For some people, the disease does not clear and can leave patients with chronic pain, fatigue, memory problems and severe headaches.

Medical experts do not agree on whether chronic Lyme disease exists, or whether symptoms are caused by a different problem.

But Yen and others like her are adamant that the condition is real and debilitating.

She is living on disability benefit having stopped work two years ago and says her circle of friends slowly dwindled to none as she was unable to participate in social events.

Without any friends and not working, Yen turned to internet forums to find other “warriors”, as she calls them.

She said other chronic illness survivors have sent her books and information, phoned her for support and keep in touch.

Their support was particularly important as Yen became more and more ill and realised that her treatment options in the UK were exhausted.

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She realised she needed to go to Mexico for treatment, a course of action that will require multiple trips to the overseas clinic where she will have a variety of stem cell therapy, ozone therapy, IV chelation, colon hydrotherapy, platelet rich plasma injections and IV antibiotics.

But to do so will cost thousands of pounds - and so she has launched a Go Fund Me page to raise £25,000. Her first visit is on October 14 and so she will need to raise £3000 of the cash before then.

Yen said: “I spent my life savings on various private doctors and treatments but there is no cure available for Lyme in the UK.

“I felt suicidal. I had hit rock bottom and could see no way out. But then I decided to fight.

“It has been really difficult to make myself so vulnerable by asking strangers for money.

“I have never taken a penny from my mum or dad; everything I have, I have worked for.

“So there is a lot of raw emotion doing this but I truly believe it is the only way to save my life.”

Remarkably, Yen is still able to think of other people and says that should she regain her health she does not want to return to her old life.

Instead, having had the care and support of strangers, Yen wants to move on to helping other people who are living with chronic illness.

She said: “Having been through all of this, having lived with chronic illness for two years, I couldn’t go back to what I was doing before. I have had nothing but kindness from strangers and I want to repay that.

“I don’t know what shape that will take but I want to be better so I can help other people. I just want to get my life back.”

To donate see: Go Fund Me