CRPS: Woman with disease that feels like she is 'burning alive' is 'exhausted' after six years of pain

A mum has launched a desperate plea for help after her daughter has spent six years "burning alive".

In 2017, Amelia Martin - known as Millie - was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and allodynia, which has turned her life upside down. From the age of 17 she has been suffering from muscle spasms, weak limbs, extremely sensitive skin, irritation and swelling across her body and even has a bad reaction to water touching her skin.

CRPS has been nicknamed "suicide disease", with the American Brain Foundation describing it as "the most painful chronic syndrome ever known". The recorded pain levels are thought to be even worse than childbirth and amputation.

Now 23, Millie and her mother, Natalie Taylor, are fundraising for potentially life-changing treatment over in America.

Natalie said: "Millie feels like she is burning alive and the pain is likened to amputation without anaesthetic. Her skin is so affected and highly sensitive that even the slightest touch or a temperature change will cause her extreme pain.

"She is so hypersensitive to light sound touch and temperature – something that feels tepid to us will feel like it's burning to her, the clothes on her skin feel like a thousand wasp stings, and the light and noise give her head pain that feels so bad she describes it as fireworks going off in her head.

"We spent hours a day trying to desensitise her body, but even the non-painful stimuli such as air or water touching her skin would cause her to scream in pain.

"For six years I have listened to her cry in pain, feeling useless and full of guilt that I can't stop my baby from hurting. But she is the strongest person I know."

The Kent-based family has so far raised more than £95,000 on GoFundMe for specialist treatment in North Carolina.

In a heartbreaking video she uploaded to YouTube, Millie said: "I don't get any sleep - I'm awake until 4am sometimes, I am physically and mentally drained. I'm so tired and I just want to go to sleep.

"I just can't cope with it anymore, it's ridiculous. The pain is horrendous. I wake up crying, I go to bed crying knowing what the next day will bring.

"I'm exhausted from this pain and exhausted from my life."