Students aim to help with Sophie’s Lyme disease ‘living hell’

A woman has spoken of her living hell after contracting the rare and debilitating Lyme disease.

“It’s like hell every day,” Sophie Moore, 22, from Douglas, Cork, said. “I live minute to minute. I should be loving and living life but at this stage, I’m really just wishing for my life back.”

Sophie spoke out last night as Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) students’ union announced a major fundraiser to help her pay for specialist medical treatment in the US.

Union president Michael Linehan said students voted to make Sophie, a former CIT student, the main beneficiary of their Rag week activities, which kick off on February 9, because they were touched by her plight.

Sophie, who was a third-year early years education student in CIT, experienced years of ill-health after a holiday in Bulgaria when she was 15. Despite countless visits to doctors here, the underlying cause of her ill-health went undiagnosed.

She researched her symptoms and, after contacting Lyme disease support group Tick Talk Ireland, she was finally diagnosed in 2013 with Lyme disease by a German lab.

Her health deteriorated to such an extent that she was ultimately forced to quit her part-time job and eventually to drop out of college.

Today, Sophie finds everyday tasks incredibly difficult and draining — she has trouble sitting, standing, and even eating.

In recent weeks, she has experienced tremors and blurred vision.

And because her condition was not diagnosed within 21 days of the tick bite, antibiotics will not work. Her only option now is a complex course of specialised treatment and therapies in the US, which could cost up to €20,000.

Mr Linehan said the students hope to raise at least €10,000 during Rag week, with half the proceeds going to Sophie, and the rest split between Focus Ireland, Childline Cork, and Age Action Ireland.

Sophie praised Tick Talk Ireland and said she hopes speaking about the condition will raise awareness among the general public, and in the medical community here.

You can help her fundraising efforts by visiting her Facebook page, Fight Back for Sophie, or by logging on to www.gofundme.com/jzpknw

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