A British woman has raised enough money to finally have her leg amputated – after campaigning doctors to remove it for more than five years.
Hope Gordon, 21, pleaded with doctors to amputate her left leg, after she was left with excruciating nerve pain from the age of 16.
The former elite swimmer was left wheelchair-bound by the agonising condition, and began asking doctors if they would remove the limb in her mid-teens.
But after Hope was denied the life-changing surgery time and again, she set up her own crowdfunding campaign to get the money she needed to have the operation done in a private hospital.
She has now raised the equivalent of $20,000 for the procedure, which enabled her wish to become a reality.
Speaking to Britain’s Daily Mail, after the surgery Holly said: “I have absolutely no regrets”.
“I have lived with this pain since I was 12 years old and it has gone now. I feel as if I’ve been given a brand new life. There is not a single bit of that left that I’m going to miss.”
Hope suffers from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), which is usually managed through painkillers and physiotherapy.
These treatments did not work for Hope however, leaving her feeling like she’d been “wrapped in barbed wire and set on fire.”
Since having the leg amputated, Hope reports she hasn’t experienced any further pain.
