Rhiannon Ingle
A woman has been forced to have one of her limbs amputated after accidentally dropping a bottle of perfume on her foot.
Mum-of-two Gill Haddington, who hails from Morecambe, Lancashire, suffered years of pain following what first appeared to be a seemingly trivial injury.
However, it later caused Gill Haddington's right foot to swell to twice its size, develop sore ulcers, turn in to the left and her toes curl underneath giving her pain so intense that she was rushed to A&E screaming in agony and, after two years, she begged doctors to amputate her leg.
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Opening up about the ordeal which took place back in September 2015, Gill explained that she knocked the empty square-shaped perfume bottle off a chest of drawers in her bedroom by accident.
"When I first did it I cried out in pain, I lifted my foot to look at it and it hurt so much I couldn't put it back down again," she recalled. "Initially I thought I must have broken it - I wish I had."
The 42-year-old was later sent home from the hospital after X-rays and scans showed no break or injury and expected it to get better.
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However, over time, it got worse and her own GP advised that as she suffered from pain condition, Fibromyalgia - which makes a patient more susceptible to pain - that must be the cause.
But it was when it swelled and developed ulcers, side effects of auto-immune illness coeliac disease, that Gill really started to worry.
She recalled feeling like 'a prisoner in my own home', adding: "I was in constant excruciating pain. I could not walk at all."
Gill had no other options but to rely on family, including daughters, Natalie, 20, and Chloe, 18, to feed her and take her out for walks, adding: "I don't think I slept at all at that time. It hurt too much to be laid up in bed.
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"Instead I would sleep on the sofa with my foot propped on a box to keep it in position, any movement I made in the night would wake me."
At times, Gill's pain was so intense that her partner, construction salesman Pete Nisbet, 61, would take her to the hospital for help.
Her foot became increasingly deformed and she was finally diagnosed with chronic regional pain syndrome in May 2016 - a condition where a person experiences persistent severe and debilitating pain following an injury.
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"I had already started talking about wanting my leg removed, but everyone couldn't believe what I was saying," Gill shared. "My leg was already dead to me, it was the cause of so much pain and unhappiness and I just wanted to get on with my life.
"I wanted to be able to walk again and to go swimming."
It wasn't until February 2017 that Gill was eventually referred to a specialist who she begged to remove her leg.
Remembering the appointment, she explained: "The specialist didn't want to do it at first, but he saw how much pain I was in and he relented.
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"In a way, I am pleased the pain was so bad. He could see there was no turning back from what was happening to me. This was the only way out."
After just four months, Gill was in surgery with surgeons at Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire removing her leg in May 2017 from under her knee, to make ensure that she was left pain free.
"As soon as I came round my partner said to me, 'I can see I've got my Gill back'. I felt so happy'," she reflected.
Following the op, Gill used a wheelchair and underwent physio for months before getting her first prosthetic leg in September 2017 - something that left her beside herself with joy.
"As soon as I got it I said to Pete, 'let's go for a walk', and we walked along the promenade. It was wonderful to be up and about," she shared. "I hadn't walked for almost three years.
"The prosthetic isn't perfect but I love it so much, having my leg removed was the best thing I ever did. I don't regret it at all."
Eventually, Gill felt well enough to return to her swimming and she is now set to swim one mile in the John West Great North Swim, at Brockhole-on-Windermere, in the Lake District, on later this summer (8 June) for charity.
"I love swimming, I feel free when I swim, nothing hurts. It's fantastic," she beamed.
You can sponsor Gill here.