Lyme4 Channel's video: Women 26 battling Lyme disease recovering after life-saving therapy - DayliMail 19-10-2017

'Without treatment I'd be in a nursing home': Australian woman, 26, 'cured' of suffering horrific seizures from Lyme disease after spending $30k on therapy in Germany - but doctors refuse to believe it exists Rachel Battersby contracted the debilitating Lyme disease while visiting Sweden The 26-year-old raised more than $30,000 to send her to Germany for treatment Ms Battersby, from the Gold Coast, is now on her way to recovering to full health Doctors in Australia continue to deny that the tick-born infection actually exists Writhing in pain and screaming in agony, the footage was nothing short of awful. But the days of Rachel Battersby being unable to leave her house for fear she'll have an episode in public are over. Video released last year showed the 26-year-old rolling around on her bed in pain, an insight into the life she has lived since contracting Lyme disease while in Sweden. The debilitating illness - which continues to go unrecognised by Australian doctors - forced Ms Battersby to fundraise so she could travel to Germany for leading surgery. And now, after raising more than $30,000 and undergoing life-saving treatment, the young woman from the Gold Coast is back at work and set to make a total recovery - something that was completely unthinkable a year ago. First describing her battle with the disease to Daily Mail Australia in 2016, she told of regularly writhing in agony and sobbing uncontrollably like she was in that short clip. 'I went to Sweden when I was 19 to study and then moved to the UK to nanny where I began experiencing back pain and also blacking out on Tubes,' Ms Battersby said. 'By the time I got home to Australia my back was really sore and I spoke to Mum, but just started brushing off. 'Then one day I called her screaming. My body had just collapsed to the floor and the pain, I don't even know how to explain it, it's like this shooting pain up my spine. 'I start rolling around like a crocodile on a death roll until an ambulance rocks up, but sometimes even they can't settle me down.' But with help from surfing legends Steph Gilmore and Mick Fanning she raised the money needed to send her to Europe, where the disease is far more common. From the time she first told her story at the height of her battle with the disease, Ms Battersby said it was unbelievable how far she'd come. 'I ended up going to Germany and getting treatment. I stayed there for four months and returned to Australia two months ago where I've been making a lot of progress,' she said. 'I'm not perfect, it takes time for all the changes to happen in the body, but I've made probably about 50 to 60 per cent treatment already and I'm actually back at work. 'If I didn't get the treatment I actually would have been in a nursing home right now, that's how serious it was.' Among the more serious incidents Ms Battersby suffered was one episode where she had to lay on the grass at a local market for two hours while spasming uncontrolably. With no way to predict when episodes may happen, she found herself in discomfort everywhere from university lectures to grocery shopping. But given a mix of supplements, autoimmune treatments and stem cell therapy over in Germany, within a month she was already on the road to recovery. Since then there's been no more episodes like that and her symptoms of early-onset Parkinson's and Multiple sclerosis have disappeared. Yet despite the shocking footage of he rolling around in pain, doctors in Australia still refuse to admit the disease exists - something Ms Battersby says she can't believe. 'They don't recognise the actual severity of tick-born infections and the actual cause of chronic disease from that,' she said. 'Some doctors do, I've been to one doctor who did, but across the board there's still a stigma against it... that's why it was so hard for me to get a diagnosis.' Now back full-time as a travel agent, Ms Battersby says while many people don't look forward to work each morning, it's something she will never take for granted. 'It's a bit of a challenge, I'm not 100 per cent, but it's great to just be back work again and I don't have any of the tremours or seizures - it's a massive comeback for me.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4995724/Lyme-Disease-sufferer-life-saving-therapy-Germany.html Video above is: Rachel's Video on Lyme and the Spasmodic Convulsions published 28-11-2016 with plea for donations so she could get treatment in Germany. https://www.mycause.com.au/page/142149/rachels-time-to-fight-lyme