About Ria
Ria Heslop is a 43 year old woman that was tragically struck down by Lyme disease in August 1999. She began experiencing a sudden onset of symptoms including severe vertigo with debilitating fatigue, flu like symptoms, severe light sensitivity and extensive neurological symptoms. These symptoms began to worsen as numerous doctors and consultants within the NHS failed to figure out what was wrong with her. Finally, after seven years of debilitating health and misdiagnosis by the UK NHS system, she was eventually diagnosed in 2006 with Late Stage Neurological Lyme Disease and co-infections by a USA Diagnostic Specialist.
Due to these extended years of non and misdiagnosis, the Lyme Disease, which could have been treated successfully with oral antibiotics at an early stage, had been left to progress and become entrenched throughout her body. Unfortunately, the Borrelia bacterium that causes Lyme Disease had entered her central nervous system and brain. Ria now presents with severe neurological involvement and seizures in addition to her other symptoms.
Ria has worked tirelessly over the past two years in requesting Colchester PCT to resume funding, but her care has been continually blocked and disrupted by their staff, stubborn attitudes and bureaucracy. Due to this failing in her healthcare and inhumane treatment her condition has further deteriorated neurologically. Ria says “I thought this illness was my biggest battle, although the ongoing lack of support, trauma and persecution that Colchester PCT has put me through on a continual basis is beyond belief”. Its quite incredible that they refuse to fund my treatment but will allow me to deteriorate to such a degree that they would have to spend tens of thousand of pounds on caring for me as I become more disabled - a totally false economy!
In addition to the funding issues with Colchester PCT, they seem hell-bent on blocking any way forward with Ria’s treatment and, more worryingly, they insist on placing continual barriers in the way of proper managed care by ignoring or losing correspondence, not running and disrupting blood tests, losing diagnostic data, shifting Ria between departments and much more. Ria states, because the lack of care and persecution was so beyond belief, she actually started keeping a log of the frequent unorthodox events and errors created by Colchester PCT - it’s blatantly clear from this log that numerous occurrences were in fact purposefully engineered.
Although Ria’s test was returned Centre for Disease Control (CDC) positive, a confirmed diagnosis of Lyme Disease and associated co-infections has been given by numerous Lyme-literate doctors, and that she has a proven treatment (long term intravenous and oral antibiotics) which was agreed, accepted and initially partially funded for a very short period of time by Colchester PCT in late 2006, Ria has since been denied treatment, support and funding despite being disabled by their failed diagnosis.
On a more positive note, Ria now feels extremely privileged to have her treatment directed and overseen by a brilliantly successful USA Lyme-literate consultant, Dr Joseph Jemsek, who is working closely with her UK private consultant Professor Terry Daymond and, guided by this combined expertise, will get Ria back to better health.