Thursday 19 April 2012

The mother who cannot love or show happiness

Kelly Timson cannot laugh or express strong emotion otherwise she collapses.

She fears her rare illness: cataplexy may have been passed to her son.

Cataplexy is a disease which causes sudden loss of muscle tone, and is triggered by emotions.

Kelly cannot go to the pub with her friends, go to a comedy show or go out by herself without risking an attack.

Her body is immediately paralzyed when she experiences strong emotions such as love, sadness and amusement.

She suffers up to 20 attacks a day and almost died once when she collapsed face down on the sofa.

The attacks are completely unpredictable, she says "sometimes they can last for a few seconds, and even up to an hour"

They can happen anywhere too, as she said "One time I was working at a doughnut kiosk, and while I was pouring the coffee machine, I was paralysed while standing, I couldn't move"

Her symptoms began at the age of 16, when she noticed she fell asleep a lot.

Her condition worsened over the upcoming years and started to suffer from total paralysis and memory loss.

She says: "one time I was at the doctors desk and collapsed, hitting my head on her desk before she knew what was happening".

Kelly hopes that soon more advanced medication can be given to her and she'll be able to look after her son.

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