A woman fears she will be "permanently disabled" if she doesn't receive breast reduction surgery.
Anji Chalk wears a size 40k bra and said she suffers with agonising pain due to the weight on her chest. The 22-year-old said: "I don't leave the house unless I go shopping but whenever I do I bring my walking stick with me.
"I get sores and sweat rashes under my breasts, it's just agony and sometimes they itch to the point there is bruising. People bump into me all the time, a number of times I've come home with bruises on my breasts because someone has accidentally knocked into me because they protrude out so much.
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"The person thinks they're not going to hit me but they do because of my breasts. When I lie down I have to manually move them off my chest if I want to sleep on my back.
"I'm not able to wear a bra lying down as the whole weight of them concentrated on my chest means I can't breathe. I'm very worried that I'm now getting to a point where I will be permanently disabled because of it."
Anji has a long history of breast-related issues and first sought advice from doctors when she was 13. She said: "I was seven when I started growing breasts.
"My parents were starting to worry and that was the catalyst for realising I was going through precocious puberty. I was so young so I didn't completely notice.
"At 14, that's when I started to grow quite exponentially because that was when my puberty was in full stride. I went from an E to an H." Anji hails from Llandudno in North Wales and she approached doctors again once she started university in Preston.
Doctors recommended she undergo a weight loss programme to ease her problems. The actress, who weighs 20 stone, embarked on a healthy eating plan to drop two stone, but struggled to continue the programme as her "mobility is compromised".
She said: "About five years ago I started a contraception that caused me to put on an extreme amount of weight that I've never actually been able to get off. My back is at a point now where I cant even go to work [some days] as I can't move out of my bed and I have two walking aids.
"The doctors have said this isn't just a situation with my joints, it's clearly a result of the breasts." Doctors have diagnosed Anji is suffering from gigantomastia - an exponential growth of excessive breast tissue - and she claims weight loss will not ease her problems.
She said: "The doctors have said they want me to lose half my body weight and be around 10 or 11 stone, which of course I'd love to be. The thing is my breasts weigh about a stone each at least.
"I wear a size 40K and have to change my bras every couple of months because the underwires break." Anji is now desperate to raise £7,500 to get the breast surgery done privately.
She said: "This year I've been at an all-time low with my back pain, I do fear that it's just going to get worse and worse. Breast reductions are seen as cosmetic no matter how hard you try to tell doctors, they will always see them as a cosmetic procedure first before being a necessity.
"Friends said if I set up a GoFundMe page they'd donate and I've had so much support already, which is absolutely amazing. If I got the surgery it would be life-changing, I don't know a life without having excessively large breasts.
"If I was going to get this surgery it would quite literally be a weight lifted off my shoulders. The idea of not having to use a walking stick, being able to exercise, not having to take painkillers everyday would be weird, but a wonderful weird."
Anji's GP surgery were contacted for comment but failed to respond. NHS Greater Preston CCG is unable to provide comment on individual patient cases. You can donate to Anji's page here
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