A dad who almost took his own life due to the excruciating pain he faced daily, watched doctors amputate his leg in a bid to be free of the "Suicide Disease" that he suffered from for years.
Andrew Lawton was shopping for a Valentine's Day gift for his partner in 2019 when his knee gave way and he fell to the ground. He initially wasn't too concerned, however his life was soon turned upside down due to a rare disorder that left him in constant agony.
He would suffer severe bruising and ulcers on his leg if it was even slightly touched, with dressings to cover up the wounds causing further damage to the skin, the Mirror reports.
The 44-year-old was unable to cover up the wounds with trousers or even a blanket as both would leave him in severe pain, and he stopped going outside over fears that others would be horrified by the large ulcers on his leg.
Andrew was even fired from his job after his manager complained he was too slow in making it down the stairs during an office fire drill. He was later awarded £30,000 compensation after filing a successful discrimination claim.
The dad-of-one was finally given an explanation for his pain when he was diagnosed with Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), also know as the Suicide Disease.
Andrew was almost driven to suicide on four occasions during his health battle and admits that it was only the thought of leaving his partner Amy and 16-year-old son Tyler that stopped him.
The IT manager said: "I was in extreme pain 24 hours a day for three and a half years. It felt like someone was giving me a Chinese burn, like your skin was being pulled in two different directions, it's that burn you feel all the time.
"I had deep bruising from my thigh to my foot and it just got progressively worse day by day, the bruising and the ulcers were like torture.
"CRPS is unusual so they had to test me for everything else first, I was put on controlled narcotics for the pain, but they had to keep upping the dose and by the end I was on six different ones at the maximum dose, which would just start to take the edge off."
Andrew became housebound, with even something as simple as being caught in the rain leaving him in agonising pain, with every rain drop causing his skin to burn.
He also worried that the wounds on his legs would illicit constant stares from strangers.
Before his CRPS diagnosis, Andrew spent his free time volunteering at Formula 1 races, jumping over the barriers after crashes, and was also a keen scuba diver.
He said: "I just shut myself off from the world and stopped all my hobbies. It was like my world had shrunk.
"It's called the suicide disease and I had been down that route three or four times, especially towards the end.
"I knew my pain would be gone, but I'd just be passing that pain onto the ones I love, my partner Amy and my 16-year-old Tyler, who is doing his GCSEs now.
"I'm the main breadwinner, I couldn't leave them behind to deal with that."
On June 6 last year, Andrew's pain caused him to black out. He was found collapsed on the kitchen floor by his terrified partner, who immediately called for an ambulance. While waiting for paramedics to arrive, he regained consciousness before immediately passing out again as his body shut down.
He spent the next two days in and out of consciousness in hospital, with doctors struggling to get his pain under control. Eventually, the decision was made to amputate his leg above-the-knee.
Andrew underwent psychological testing to prepare him for the procedure, but medics warned him that going under general anaesthetic and waking up with his leg gone, could lead to him suffering from "phantom" leg pain.
In an effort to prevent this, Andrew opted to stay awake during the surgery and watch his leg being amputated. He said after the epidural went in, he knew immediately that he had made the right decision.
"After the epidural, while I was waiting for the surgery, I broke down in tears.
"It was the first time I had been pain-free in three and a half years. From that day I haven't felt any more pain."
Andrew has since been fitted with a prosthetic leg and life is slowly returning to normal. He is currently planning to take part in a skydive to help raise money for others who suffer from CRPS, and has a kickstarter business to help provide the NHS with cheaper and better prosthetics.
However, he knows that the CRPS could still return in another part of his body.
The NHS website admits that the condition is 'poorly understood" with 11-year-old Dillon Wilford, from Bolton, also suffering condition.
Like Andrew, the schoolboy is left in constant agony and told his mum he wanted to die to stop the pain.
Dillon's mum Melanie told the Mirror that her son was screaming “24 hours a day” and with the feeling of “wind or rain” on his skin worsening his symptoms.
She said: “When people hear that Dillon is in pain they think his leg hurts a lot but it’s important people realise CRPS doesn’t just hurt, it’s excruciating constant pain 24 hours a day.
“As a family we are pretty broken, myself and [his sister] Maddie have both listened to Dillon saying he wanted to die, imagine hearing your 10-year-old say he wants to hurt himself to numb the pain of his leg, how absolutely heartbreaking this is for us."
Dillon’s family spent almost £18,500 to travel to the US for specialised treatment, with Dillon now pain-free for the first time in months.
Melanie, Dillon’s mum added: “Honestly it’s just unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable, and all of that was in the space of a couple of days.”
The family is now campaigning for the VECTTOR machine, which helps Dillon to stimulate the nerves to produce certain neuropeptides that are essential for the body function, reducing his pain levels, to be available on the NHS.
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