A young women who is in perpetual agony after being bitten by an insect is begging to be killed as she remains bed-ridden for 11 long years.
Kirsty Keep
A 23-year-old woman, Kirsty Keep, who has been bed-ridden for 11 years has told her family she wants to die in a suicide assisted clinic in Switzerland.
Kirsty contracted lupus after she was bitten by a bug in her back garden in Maidstone, Kent when she was 12 years old.
Her mother says Kirsty has asked her to help her end her life by taking her to a Swiss clinic. Because of her condition, her immune system attacks healthy cells, tissue and organs.
She spent three weeks in hospital after the incident as the bite grew to the side of a hand. By the age of 16, her face was paralysed by Bell’s palsy.
Kirsty also started having seizures 18 months ago.
Speaking from her hospital bed, Kirsty said: “My bones feel like they’re being snapped and my muscles ripped.
“It feels like there’s someone inside me pulling my insides.”
Kirsty Keep
Her mother Theresa believes she was bitten by a tick and that she may also be suffering from the bacterial infection Lyme disease.
However, tests for Lyme disease have come back negative, so Kirsty’s family are looking at having alternative tests.
“When she has bad days you feel like you’re watching her go,” said Theresa.
“She’s begged me to take her to Switzerland and said she doesn’t want to do it any more. That’s not something you want to hear from your daughter. You’re heartbroken every day.
“Every few months, when she can’t stop being sick, she has to come into hospital and go on a drip because she’s dehydrated. All she wants is a normal life.”
Kirsty’s sister Chloe has set up a Go Fund Me page to raise money for her cause.
She said: “Kirsty spends 90 per cent of her time in bed she has to have 24/7 care. She can’t be left on her own, this is not a life for a 23-year-old.”