Get Nikki to Cyprus to get her life back!

Nikki has been seriously ill for 20 years, she has missed most of life's opportunities with illness.

It is our hope that specialized treatment in Cyprus will give her some of her precious little ife back.

Mid September is when we are hoping to say goodbye to Nikki and welcome home a new woman.

Nikki spends most of her time in bed suffering a huge amount of differing symptoms. Just to list a few....

* Seizures

* Loss of speech and paralysis episodes

* Crippling migraines

* Severe insomnia

* Nausea

* Excrutiating pain

* Daily flu-like symptoms, sweats, chills, fevers, like the worst flu you've ever had but it never leaves, not one day are you without symptoms or pain

* Extreme chemical sensitivities – Nikki can no longer tolerate most medication, supplements or even natural herbs to help with pain, insomnia or treatment and chemicals in daily life eg someone wearing perfume can trigger seizures and exacerbate all symptoms

* Extreme limbic system dyfunction, often unable to tolerate any sound, light or touch (shower feels like glass shards, people talking feels like a bomb going off in your brain), Nikki is often living life shut in a blacked out darkened room just to survive

* Severe isolation and extreme worsening of symptoms with the slightest exertion, even something as simple as having a shower, trying to talk on the phone or have a visitor

The list could go on and on. As you can see this is on a daily basis for 20 years. Unimaginable for anyone else.

To help you understand Nikki futher please keep reading below.....

Please help Nikki get her life back!

M.E (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) is classified by the WHO as a Neuro-endocrine and immune disease with complications and symptoms as severe as cancer, MS, HIV/AIDS and Motorneurone disease – yet treatment or the cause of M.E is not yet fully understood.

Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete bacterial infection that, in particular, attacks the brain and cardiac muscle. Symptoms overlap with M.E however M.E is usually viral in etiology (Lyme is bacterial). You can have one illness without the other or both together.

Funds will be used for: Travel, medical expenses, treatment, facility, carers (Nikki is not well enough to travel or go through treatment alone) and general up keep of Nikki whilst overseas. Nikki and her parents have been struggling with huge annual costs already (between $30 000 - $50 000 per year) for treatment that keeps Nikki functioning to some degree (without it she was, as one friend put it, 'the sickest person I know who hasn't died yet'). This treatment (including IV therapy) needs to continue until Nikki can get to Cyprus to even have her well enough to travel. It is costing several hundred dollars per week, and many loans have been needed to pay for treatment to date. If enough funds are raised in addition to costs needed for Cyprus, they will be directed toward paying off these loans and covering this treatment between now and Cyprus, plus any future treatment needed. Whilst huge gains are expected in Cyprus, after twenty years sick, some follow up treatment may be needed. Long term, Nikki hopes to be able to help others in similar situations, with a hope of having a trust fund set up to support others needing treatment. But first we need to get her well!

The Neomed Clinic in Cyprus offers:

− the full package wrap around care that Nikki needs

− intensive, fully supported

− an entire team of medical professionals who deal with this illness day in day out

− state of the art medical equipment and treatments including ten pass ozone therapy, able to kill infection and stimulate the body's own stem cell production

− treatments that cross the blood brain barrier to treat the infection in the brain

− intravenous therapies

− treatments stimulating tissue repair and reduce inflammation, including brain and nervous system inflammation (inflammation caused by the infection itself, die-off inflammatory cytokines, as well as altered gene expression and inflammatory responses)

− optimising lymhpatic drainage (vital to remove toxins from 'die off' of the bug kill treatments, this is as important as the antimicrobial treatments themselves)

− specialised testing to cater the treatment to each individual

− flexibility of treatment plan daily according to patient's daily needs and presentation

− nutrition and meals specific for each patients needs according to specific testing

− gut repair – the gut is destroyed by the illness and also by the years of medications and antibiotics. Without healing the gut, there can be no return to health

− Focus on healing the limbic system and cellular repair: with long term infection/chronic Lyme, it is no longer just about killing the bacteria and co-infections. Imagine having a city invaded by an enemy army. Even if you defeat the army, you are left with a city that is destroyed by bombs, mortars, warfare – uninhabitable. This must be repaired to have any chance at regaining life

− rebuilding the immune system

− after hours care and on call emergency care: no more will Nikki have to go it alone like she has done for so many years

− follow up care, rehabilitation plan

Put simply, we are at the end of the road with what can be offered in New Zealand. Despite all efforts, Nikki is not progressing and is reliant on expensive, intensive, all consuming daily therapies just to keep her even somewhat functional, but barely. If these are stopped, she goes backwards fast. She has no life outside of treatments and assisted ADL. This is a last ditch and very necessary effort to give her any kind of life but without funding, she categorically cannot afford to go.

Other patients in similar states to Nikki have made huge progress in Cyprus, regaining their lives, getting back to work, sport, life. Everyone is different, people progress at different rates but even small gains when so sick will be worth every dollar. It offers huge hope that Nikki can reclaim at least some of her life and keep progressing from there. Without this, there is next to no hope.

Throughout the illness Nikki has done all she can to make silver linings happen including sharing her music, often from a bedridden state. One such song has taken her four years to be able to record just one take, literally either side of seizures and collapses, barely able to sit upright long enough to get through one take but she was absolutely determined to make this recording happen. It is available for download by $1 donation or more at:

https://nikkijo.bandcamp.com/releases

Nikki has so many more compositions and so much more music in her waiting to be shared, but currently hidden from the world due to this horrific illness. She needs the health to be able to share her talents with the world, to be able to live life again, to no longer be invisible, a prisoner behind four walls. All help greatly appreciated! Thank you.

For more information on Nikki please read her stuff article here...

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/87008909/nikkijo-tyrrells-life-has-been-on-hold-since-she-got-lyme-disease

Nikki valiantly trying to sing from her bed - something she does when able, to both lift her own spirits and that of others whilst also raising awareness of the illness. You can see how much it takes out of her - we need to get her well so she can share her music with the world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WgWCkmzwgU