View gallery Rachel McCairns
View gallery Two years ago Rachel McCairns was a typical 25-year-old; a devoted daughter, sister and Auntie who frantically balanced family life with keeping fit and healthy.
But today, she is an amputee, having under gone an operation to remove one of her legs from the knee down.
The cause of such life-changing physical disability is not because of an accident, but a condition that affects more than three million of us: diabetes.
Rachel, from Norton, was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was nine years old.
The condition meant she was dependent on insulin injections and pumps for most of her childhood.
“I was always a really active, healthy child,” said Rachel, now 27.
“I always had a massive appetite, and always full of energy, but after my six weeks’ holiday, I became really poorly. I remember losing about a stone in 24 hours and that was when we knew something was wrong.”
From then on, Rachel battled to keep her sugar levels under control and was forever in and out of hospital fighting infections. At one point she left doctors at North Tees Hospital baffled as a constant insulin drip even struggled to keep her levels balanced.
Rachel said: “I used to think: “why me?” but injecting insulin soon became a part of my life and I had no choice but to learn to live with it. When doctors thought I wasn’t taking it correctly my mam took over, but my sugar levels still remained sky high.”
Rachel was faced with her first setback shortly after being diagnosed, when a X-ray showed a tumour the size of a rugby ball between her lungs and spine. The tumour was so big, the top of her spine had begun to curve.
“Luckily, I was told the tumour wasn’t cancerous about a month after it had been removed,” Rachel said.
“If I didn’t have diabetes, the tumour might have never been found, so I like to think everything happens for a reason.”
After 16 years of hospital admissions with at least four daily insulin injections, Rachel, for the first time ever, went for a girls weekend to Blackpool.
“My diabetes at this point had settled down, so I felt it was time to let my hair down and enjoy myself. But on the second day, we were in the Pleasure Beach when I felt a pain in my foot, as though I had a stone in my shoe.”
The pain was in fact the bones in Rachel’s ankle exploding - due to years of high sugars attacking the nerve ends.
After a trip to A and E, she was told her ankle was badly sprained and was fitted with a non-weight bearing cast before going home.
A week later, Rachel went for a three-month check-up at her diabetic clinic, and it was there she was diagnosed with charcot - a rare foot condition which causes a sudden softening of the bone. She continued wearing the cast to keep her foot in place, and was told it could take up to six months to heal.
“I was told the only thing I could do was rest and wait for it to heal, but 18 months passed and I was still in plaster. By this point it looked like it was ready to pop. But amputation never occurred to me.”
Rachel, who at the time worked as a checkout supervisor at Morrisons, was hit with the devastating news that her leg needed to be amputated in November 2013 - something which understandably, she refused to accept.
“I was quite defensive when they told me. But I eventually came round and I knew it was my only option.”
Rachel was able to enjoy Christmas with her family, including mum Sue, sister Emma and her two nieces Megan, seven, and Georgie, three.
“My biggest dread was how my nieces would react,” Rachel said. “I was so used to doing everything with them, it devastated me to think they would be scared of how I looked.”
Despite her many challenges, Rachel remained upbeat and went through with the op in January.
She has since been fitted with her artificial leg and is already taking her first steps. And her determination doesn’t stop there - after starting an Open University course in psychology and sociology, Rachel hopes to set up a website to help people affected by the disease, which can be treated, but for which there is currently no cure.
She said: “Although I’ve always had my family to talk to, they don’t have diabetes, and I think a website for people with diabetes or amputations would definitely help. My experience has certainly made me stronger, and I’m looking forward to the future.”
