{"id":503416,"date":"2026-03-30T12:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503416\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:38:18","slug":"woman-spent-her-whole-life-knowing-something-was-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503416\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman spent her whole life knowing something was wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘I was getting more sick every single day. I was in so much pain every day. Still nobody had a clue what was wrong with me’<\/p>\n

05:45, 30 Mar 2026Updated 12:26, 30 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Tayla<\/p>\n

Tayla Freeman(Image: Tayla Freeman Instagram)<\/p>\n

A St Helens<\/a> woman went her whole life feeling “not quite right” until her mysterious symptoms spiralled and left her bedbound and in agony. Tayla Freeman, 23, suffered from severe fatigue and chronic pain so bad that doctors<\/a> at one point suspected she had an undiagnosed form of cancer.<\/p>\n

She said: “I think I spent a lot of my life knowing I wasn’t quite right but because I didn’t have severe signs it was never flagged. I spent a lot of my life struggling and working hard to be like everyone else, but never knowing what was wrong.”<\/p>\n

Tayla’s health problems started when she was just a child, when she suffered from problems with her bladder and bowel. Her joints were unusually weak, resulting in constant twists and sprains.<\/p>\n

She said: “I was constantly spraining my ankles and wrists. It happened so many times, I’d just be walking and my ankles would go beneath me. I didn’t know anything was wrong.<\/p>\n

“I always felt really faint and fatigued. I went to the GP and I was just told it was low iron. That was the picture for me growing up.”<\/p>\n

Things worsened in 2020 when covid<\/a> broke out and Tayla was diagnosed with the virus, which worsened her existing fatigue. Suspecting she was suffering from long Covid, she persevered with her education and studied law at university in Liverpool.<\/p>\n

She said: “In 2024 I had a really traumatic time and every part of my body started to decline. I lost a friend to cancer, my rugby coach died suddenly, and it was a really tough time emotionally, and the stress and everything came with all of that just stacked up. That was the turning point.<\/p>\n

“It started with vertigo. My first episode I thought I was having a stroke and I had to go to A&E. From that point I kept having more of them. Then I started having chronic migraines and pain through my body.<\/p>\n

“The joint dislocations had started a few years before, but that got worse. My vision got worse, and everything started stacking up.<\/p>\n

“Luckily I managed to push through my last few months of uni and graduate. At the time I thought I would get better over the summer then go back to do a Masters course. But I wasn’t getting any better. I reached August (2024) and realised it wasn’t going to go away, so I had to delay my Masters.”<\/p>\n

\"Tayla<\/p>\n

Tayla at her graduation at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral(Image: Tayla Freeman Instagram)<\/p>\n

She continued to work as a waitress throughout the latter half of 2024, but her symptoms continued and she was eventually forced to give that up too.<\/p>\n

She said: “I worked through the winter and I was getting more sick every single day. I was in so much pain every day. I ended up having a few hospital admissions because the pain was getting so bad. Still nobody had a clue what was wrong with me.<\/p>\n

“It was one of the hardest things I have ever been through. Throughout uni I was really sociable. I was on the rugby team, the law society, always out with friends and socialising, so I sort of had to grieve who I was. Losing the ability to study and losing the ability to work was really tough.”<\/p>\n

Tayla was referred to multiple health specialists, and even placed on a cancer pathway as doctors tried to figure out the cause of her debilitating problems.<\/p>\n

She said: “I was trialled on so many medications including antidepressants and ended up suffering bad side effects, so I reached a really bad time mentally.<\/p>\n

“It was really isolating at the time. My friends were all there for me, but seeing people my age still living and partying while I was just bedbound most days was really, really hard.”<\/p>\n

\"Tayla<\/p>\n

Tayla was once an active rugby player(Image: Tayla Freeman Instagram)<\/p>\n

After countless medical appointments, Tayla asked her GP about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) last year. EDS refers to a group of rare inherited conditions, commonly causing loose joints, extreme tiredness, digestive problems, dizziness and an increased heart rate.<\/p>\n

She said she had asked another doctor about the condition on a previous occasion, but was told this was unlikely to be the cause of her problems. This time, however, she was referred for further tests which confirmed the diagnosis in January.<\/p>\n

She said: “When I was diagnosed the GP said to me there still is not a lot that can be done, but to me it was a weight off my shoulders as an explanation for the pain I had gone through my whole life. Once you have your diagnosis, you can connect the dots of everything you’ve been through<\/p>\n

“I think I spent a lot of my life knowing I wasn’t quite right but because I didn’t have severe signs it was never flagged. I spent a lot of my life struggling and working hard to be like everyone else, but never knowing why. So having that diagnosis was a massive relief, especially with my life being on hold for the past two years. My life hasn’t been this hard for no reason – now I have an explanation.”<\/p>\n

EDS cannot be cured and there is currently no specific treatment, which means people with the condition can only hope to manage their symptoms.<\/p>\n

In light of her diagnosis, Tayla is planning on taking part in the 2026 Dazzle Walk, which raises money for The Ehlers-Danlos Support UK charity.<\/p>\n

She said: “The journey I’ve been on has been a whole life journey. I spent two years with my life on hold and I’m still not well enough to work or go back to uni. There were so many times I’ve been bedbound. I couldn’t even walk down the street.<\/p>\n

“There needs to be more awareness of rare conditions and how they can affect people because then maybe less people would end up in the dark like me.”<\/p>\n

Tayla’s online fundraiser for EDS UK can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I was getting more sick every single day. I was in so much pain every day. Still nobody…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,2685,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-503416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-st-helens","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}