/www.thedanniegoodridgefund.co.ukwww.thedanniegoodridgefund.co.uk
A fifteen-year-old girl who throws up fifty times a day is trying to raise money to undergo 'bionic stomach' surgery.
Dannie Goodridge from Lower Weybourne, Farnham, Surrey, cannot eat or drink without being sick, and in the last year has lost 20 per cent of her body weight.
She is malnourished and at risk of heart failure unless she urgently undergoes the surgery which could take six months to be approved on the NHS. Her family are now desperately trying to raise the £20,000 needed to fit the bionic stomach privately.
It took medics a year to diagnose Dannie with gastroparesis, a disorder which prevents the stomach from properly emptying. Doctors had originally thought the teenager was suffering from an eating disorder.
Dannie's condition can be treated by fitting a pacemaker to the stomach which would cause electronic impulses to move food through her gut.
Her family are so concerned about her dropping potassium levels that they have launched an online appeal to try and raise the money for her treatment.
Her mum Nikky, 44, said: "We have been to hell and back in the last year, with people telling us it was an eating disorder, but we knew that it wasn't.
"It was a big relief to finally get a diagnosis and know what we were up against. Just over a year ago we all sat down together and had a wonderful, normal Christmas, but this Christmas was horrible. She was in hospital on Christmas Eve and again on Boxing Day."
On her website thedanniegoodridgefund.co.uk, Dannie says she has to deal with "a lot of comments and bullying over my weight, people assuming I have an eating disorder.":
"Doctors didn't know what was going on, I had no diagnosis, I couldn't tell people what was wrong with me. No medication worked, no special diet, what was I supposed to do, not eat?"
The teenager says that waiting for the pacemaker surgery on the NHS could be "a very long process and I may not have that much time."
What a sad story - let's hope Dannie meets her fundraising target.