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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
George Mathias & John Bett

'I get excruciating cluster headaches at the exact same time every day - it is torture'

A man suffers from cluster headaches that are so painful it's like "torture" - and he gets them at the same time every day.

Luke MacDonald, 33, gets the pains in the same place at the same time, and has been living with the condition for decades.

He describes the pain as being like a hot poker being driven into the back of his eyeball - and even though it can leave him suicidal, he was only diagnosed as an adult.

Luke, from Hertfordshire but now living in Cambodia, always gets the headaches at the same times - 11:44pm and 2:30am, and he has no idea why they occur at those times.

Luke gets headaches between 11:44pm and 2:30am (Luke MacDonald / SWNS)
He said the pain is "torture" (Luke MacDonald / SWNS)

Do you know someone who suffers from cluster headaches? Let us know in the comments...

Luke, who runs a burger van, said: "I get them at 11:44pm on the dot, until 12:44am. I then get another one at 2:30am.

"It starts with what we call in the community a shadow, it's like a pain shadow which creeps from behind your head to your right ear.

"It is always on the right side of the head. Then once it fully starts it is the worst pain imaginable.

"It feels like a red-hot poker is driving into the back of your right eye from inside your brain or like something's dragging the back of your eye into your brain.

"The pain gets increasingly worse, until you literally resort to trying to knock yourself out because it's so bad.

"You are sensitive to light, sound, everything, it's like someone has set a bomb off behind your eyeball.

"I would take any other pain over it, there is nothing that compares to it."

Luke has been battling the condition for years (Luke MacDonald / SWNS)

Luke got his first cluster headache aged six, which was so painful he began smacking his head against a car door.

His grandparents rushed him to hospital where they tested him for meningitis but did not give him a diagnosis - and told him it was "probably migraines", he claims.

The headaches then subsided until Luke was a teenager when they resurfaced.

He again went to hospital, but doctors didn't diagnose him.

From the age of 18, Luke has been travelling around the world, spending time living all across Asia.

He is currently living in Cambodia after coming over from Thailand.

It was only when he was in Thailand and he had an attack, that a doctor diagnosed his condition as cluster headaches.

Luke's wife, Holly, can do nothing to help and has to watch on when an episode starts (Luke MacDonald / SWNS)
Luke has been living with the condition for years (Luke MacDonald / SWNS)

Luke had been living for three years without an attack, which he attributed to taking 'a heavy dose of psilocybin mushrooms' but they returned with a vengeance two months ago.

There is an active community on Facebook of people who suffer from the horrible illness which Luke says is a big comfort to him.

He said: "We basically, try and stop each other from killing ourselves.

"There are some people who have it chronically, and for them they have headaches for maybe ten hours of the day.

"For people like that suicide is very common, and I do not blame them for it."

Luke says that the pain is nothing like a migraine or a strong headache.

"The problem with it is people say, 'oh I have migraines too' but it is a world apart from that.

"It is completely debilitating, I live in constant fear of the next attack.

But it is not just the individual that is impacted by having it, with family members having to live through the ordeal of not being able to do anything to alleviate the pain.

Luke said: "There are two parts to having cluster headaches. There is the pain side and the suffering side.

"The suffering side is living in constant fear of getting the next headache and the impact the illness has on my wife and friends."

Luke says it is horrendous for his wife Holly, who is powerless once an attack starts.

The pair tied the knot in December, having been together for ten years.

"She's the one who has to sit there every night while I'm wailing in pain," Luke explained.

"She doesn't sleep a wink when I'm having an attack, she stays up and makes sure I don't harm myself.

"I want to stop feeling sorry for myself and try and make people a bit more aware of it.

"This illness is killing people and there is so little research into it.

"I just want to raise as much awareness of it as possible so more research can be done to reduce the suffering we all have to go through."

When life is difficult, Samaritans are here – day or night, 365 days a year. You can call them for free on 116 123, email them at jo@samaritans.org or visit www.samaritans.org to find your nearest branch.

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