Woman contracts rare disease that is 'turning her to stone' after insect bite
The owner of a UK zoo said she is “turning to stone” after contracting a rare illness while on a trek through the jungle.
Rebecca Willers, 37 was diagnosed with diffuse systemic sclerosis after she was bitten by an insect in Kerinci Seblat National Park in Indonesia in 2015.
It wasn’t until she returned to the UK that the conservationist started having symptoms of the disease, which kills one in ten people within five years.
“The scariest thing has been how rapid the onset has been,” she told Mail Online.
“My doctor has warned me that the next three years will be the most aggressive.”
Ms Willers, who runs the Shepreth Wildlife Park in Cambridgeshire, said the most basic tasks are now a huge struggle as the incurable disease makes her body feeling “like it is turning into stone”.
“The disease is a subtype of scleroderma, which affects my organs including heart, lungs, kidneys, GI tract, muscles and joints,” she wrote on Facebook.
Systemic sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the body.
Healthy tissue is destroyed because the immune system mistakenly thinks it’s a foreign substance or infection.
Now restricted to the office filling out paperwork, Ms Willers said she’s also been forced to cancel her pension and put her house on the market to cover the mounting medical bills for tests and treatments.
“I’m embracing a very positive attitude as I’m acutely aware of how lucky I am to have been diagnosed so early," she added.
“My symptoms began to manifest two years ago, however I’m still fortunate as many people are not lucky enough to have had such an early diagnosis.
“I have always been a very positive, upbeat person and there is no way this condition will change that about me, but I do know some people have found that a little hard to take – so I can only thank you for going through this process with me in the way that I have chosen.”
