A teenager was in so much pain from a rare back condition that she started researching going to Dignitas because ‘suicide was her only option’.
Taylor Boyd-Long, 16, started suffering from debilitating headaches and back pain while on holiday in Portugal in June 2016.
Terrified at what might have happened, she underwent a series of tests, which eventually revealed she had a rare spinal condition called Chiari Malformation type 1.
While she was still searching for answers, she was in so much pain she looked into a trip to the Swiss assisted-suicide clinic Dignitas – claiming it was her ‘only option’.
Taylor Boyd-Long (pictured), 16, started suffering from debilitating headaches and back pain while on holiday in Portugal in June 2016
While she was still searching for answers, she was in so much pain she looked into a trip to the Swiss assisted-suicide clinic Dignitas – claiming it was her ‘only option’
But after her diagnosis came she decided to battle on and 18 months later Taylor, of County Down, Northern Ireland, is still fighting.
Her family decided to look beyond the UK for a way of ridding her of chronic pain and have booked her into a world-leading clinic in Barcelona, Spain.
The pioneering treatment costs £25,000, which Taylor, now 17, is crowdfunding online in the hope of reversing her gradual paralysis.
She told Belfast Live: ‘The condition I have is slowly paralysing me. It’s terrifying. I thought my life was over last year because things seemed so bleak.
‘Last year things got so bad, my life had changed so much that I started researching ways to get to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to be assisted to bring my life to an end.
Eighteen months later Taylor (pictured), now 17, of County Down, Northern Ireland, is still fighting
Her family decided to look beyond the UK for a way of ridding her of chronic pain and have booked her into a world-leading clinic in Barcelona, Spain for £25,000 treatment on June 5
‘I couldn’t take any more. I didn’t want to be here and I didn’t want to get anyone into trouble by asking for help here.
‘Mum was horrified and very worried because we had so many drugs in the house but no one but me could feel the pain I was in so I thought Dignitas was my only option.’
Her rare condition means the lowest part of her brain pushes down on her spinal cord, causing back and neck pain, headaches, dizziness and muscle weakness
Taylor has just four months to raise the funds for the £18,800 surgery, which in addition to tests, scans, aftercare and travel will total £25,000.
But until her appointment on June 5 she is still faced with constant pain.
Her rare condition means the lowest part of her brain pushes down on her spinal cord, causing back and neck pain, headaches, dizziness and muscle weakness.
She had decompression surgery in October 2016 to prevent her having a stroke – but things still didn’t improve.
The horse-riding teenager has since developed three fluid-filled cavities called syrninxes on her spinal cord, which have made things worse.
She also suffers from a condition called syringomyelia.
But the Filum Sectioning surgery, which is believed to be less invasive than treatment currently available on the NHS, could remove them and ‘cure’ her.
The teenager, who until her illness was a highly active army cadet, told the newspaper she is now ‘fighting for her life’.
She added: ‘I know now that going to Switzerland is not an option for me. I choose life and I’m grateful to everyone who has already donated to my fund and to anyone who puts a single penny in there for me.’