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WASTING away: (top) Emma Higgins with her mum Christine: (right) with her daughter Charleyanne and (inset) at a healthier time
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Why do I keep losing weight?
30/ 4/2008
AT just five-and-a-half stone Emma Higgins is wasting away.
Most days she doesn't even have the energy to get dressed let alone play with her baby daughter.
Emma has a debilitating condition which her parents fear will kill her, but which medics are at a loss to explain.
The 21 year old has spent the last five years in and out of hospital with the same symptoms — vomiting every time she eats or drinks and severe stomach and back pain. The problems start around the time of her period and can last for up to eight days.
Emma, who lives with her parents on Bank Top, Ashton, said: "It’s agony. I’ll eat something or just bite into something and that’ll be it, I’ll be sick. I can’t even keep water down.
"I was 7st a couple of months ago but I’m 5st 8lbs now, that’s the lowest I’ve ever been. I couldn’t even go out on my 21st birthday because the smell of alcohol makes me sick."
Emma, who was forced to quit a baking course at Tameside College and dreams of one day becoming a model, says she receives a different diagnosis every time she goes to hospital.
From bowel and kidney infections to hormonal or psychological problems, she was even told she was infertile until she fell pregnant and gave birth to a healthy Charleyanne, now eight months old.
Parents Christine and Paul are now appealing for help.
"How much longer are they going to leave it, how much lower is her weight going to be before someone says, this has to stop?" said Christine. "We’re just hoping that somebody reads this and recognises the symptoms. We are frightened she’s going to die and we’re crying out for help."
Most recent 2 of 3 user comments
6/05/2008 at 13:20
Got an opinion you want to share?Should less emphasis be placed on the results of tests and more emphasis on general education for children?
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