As a child, I was raised in the French countryside in the Dordogne. From around the age of five, I’d help local farmers by collecting eggs and herding cows in the fields. I was also naturally curious and adventurous and would go exploring in the bushes. I’d often end up covered in ticks and an old lady at the farm would put me in an iron bath and brush them off me. This is not the right way of removing them, which is to pull them out of the skin, as soon as possible, to prevent the transmission of disease. It should often be followed by a course of antibiotics.
The next day, I’d be covered in bruising and red marks, which we now call a “bullmark”, or the “bulls-eye” rash, medically known as Erythema migrans, a hallmark symptom of Lyme disease. My mum was always horrified and took me to the doctor, who thought it was an allergic reaction to a bite and prescribed me an antihistamine. But due to a lack of awareness years ago, nobody ever mentioned Lyme disease.
Looking back, I suffered years of mild symptoms. I had a delayed puberty because my body was not functioning properly; weight gain due to factors known to be caused by Lyme disease, such as gastrointestinal issues and hormonal imbalances; and I craved sugar because my body was stressed.
As much as I was exhausted, I was also hyper – Lyme disease can cause symptoms that mimic or contribute to ADHD – and I was also hyper-sensitive. I couldn’t switch off. By the age of eight, I was already seeing a psychotherapist who recommended more exercise to exhaust me.
It was painful because I knew I was struggling, but I didn’t know why. I was failing at school – my body was not functioning enough for me to study properly. I was lacking in confidence.
But the real symptoms didn’t start until later, when I was aged 16. After I had surgery for a broken nose, the disease took hold, worsened by the general aesthetic that can suppress the immune system, potentially impacting the body’s ability to fight off an active infection. I had decades of chronic symptoms, including extreme anxiety, muscle and joint pain, cognitive dysfunction, fatigue, emotional dysregulation, brain fog, hair loss, gut issues and heart infections from a condition known as Lyme carditis, as well as impotence.
These symptoms became a part of my everyday life, suffering for more than 20 years with symptoms no conventional treatment could resolve. I felt alone – and abandoned by everybody. The problem with having the disease so young is that I didn’t know any different.
Weeks after the news of my estranged father’s death, I had my first proper panic attack at age 27. By then, I was an osteopathic practitioner working in London. I didn’t know what was going on but whatever it was, it was ruining my life. I went to see doctors who misdiagnosed me and told me I was suffering from depression and hypochondria.
None of this rang true and I refused to accept these diagnoses. I tried salt treatment, homoeopathy, Chinese herbs, Ayurvedic medicine, supplements, herbs, bioresonance, healing, and saunas. Nothing worked – and nobody was able to diagnose me properly. I spent so much money trying to find the solution. I was alone and frustrated and not able to get better.
Five years later, when I was 35, a patient of mine called me for an emergency appointment for her son – they had just landed from Germany and he wasn’t feeling well. As he lay down on my physio table, I suspected he’d got all the symptoms of meningitis. I said to the mum: “Just take him to A&E.” The boy, however, didn’t have meningitis – he had Lyme disease, which caused encephalitis, inflammation of the brain, a stiff neck and sensitivity to the light.
It was a lightbulb moment for me. “This is what I have,” I realised. “I must have Lyme disease.”
I went to the GP and told him to check me for Lyme disease, but was not taken seriously. In 2010, there was still a lack of awareness and diagnostic testing [for Lyme] in the UK. It’s only more recently, since it’s been in the media with celebrities speaking out publicly about having contracted Lyme disease, including Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Bella Hadid and Miranda Hart, that it has become more widely recognised.
So I went for a private blood test for Lyme disease, which was sent off to Germany. A few weeks later, it was confirmed that I had Lyme disease with seven other co-infections.
Everything made sense. I had the results – but still my GP couldn’t help because the blood tests are not regulated in the UK. I went to a private hospital in Hertfordshire that deals with chronic conditions like Lyme disease. They looked at my results and told me I needed to start on antibiotics.
After five days on the medication, I was so ill. I had a “herx” [Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction] – a sudden and typically transient response caused by the endotoxin-like substances released from dying bacteria, triggering symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, nausea, muscle aches and a worsening of existing skin lesions.
I went back to the doctor and said the treatment was too strong. They started me again on it, slower, but it made me too unwell as my liver, which was damaged by Lyme disease, couldn’t expel the toxins from my body properly.
It was decided I needed IV antibiotics. I started paying thousands of pounds for tests and antibiotics. It still didn’t work – my Lyme disease had been there for so long that we struggled to treat it effectively. I was told it might be years and years of treatment. I felt so hopeless: I was 38 and I believed I’d never get better.
After years of illness – feeling unseen, misunderstood, and dismissed – I carried the heavy weight of watching not only my own body suffer, but also my patients and family struggle with the same long-term conditions. As a practitioner, I knew I had to do something – not only for myself, but for those around me who were equally devoted, desperate, and searching for answers.
When I started to feel better, I questioned myself – was it just in my head?
I’d invested everything; time, money, and energy into treatments across orthodox [Western] medicine, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, complementary and energetic approaches. Each brought fragments of improvement, but never solved the problem. Refusing to give up, and driven by the relentless neurotoxicity of Lyme that left me hyperactive on only a few hours sleep, I built an empirical lab within my own integrative practice.
I began integrating everything I had learned as a practitioner and as a patient, travelling the world, trialling and testing on myself. Through this process, I developed Liquid Intelligence, a food supplement to rebalance and cleanse the body that infuses dynamised water with vitamins, minerals and electrolytes to help restore the body’s rhythm and immunity. I now use Liquid Intelligence and an array of alternative therapies to help others overcome persistent fatigue, neurological issues, and immune dysfunction linked to Lyme and other chronic conditions.
When I started to feel better, I questioned myself – was it just in my head? Was my mind playing tricks on my body? Today, I’ve been symptom-free for seven years. But the hardest part? Lyme disease becomes you. I had to relearn how to live without it to say goodbye to it.
