FOR years and years, I didn't realise I had the hep C virus. In my twenties, blood tests showed my liver wasn't working very well, but the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me.
Then in 1989, a new test became available. Two years later, my doctor asked me if I wanted to take it. I did, and it came out positive for hepatitis C.
At that stage, it didn't really affect me. In 1993, I was offered a place on a trial and started treatment. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful and, despite trying treatment again in 2004, the medication was stopped because I was having terrible side effects and I was still unable to clear the virus.
My condition was deteriorating badly and I developed cirrhosis of the liver. I was very tired, had flu-like symptoms and no concentration. I would get up and not do much for two hours but still feel like I had run a marathon.
I also had really bad itchiness from the toxins which the liver would normally expel going into the skin, plus swelling of the ankles and legs.
I work as a self-employed sales agent for fashion accessories, so I was still able to do some work from home.
In 2009, I had a liver transplant, which was quite problematic, as I was back into hospital seven or eight times. The virus still returned very aggressively, damaging my new liver.
Since then, I have been having more treatment and the virus is not active now, although I do still get some muscle ache and tiredness.
I still don't know how I contracted the virus. It could have been when I was in the army in Italy, when we had a lot of injections from the same needle, or it could have been from dental work.
Back in the 1990s, not many people knew about hepatitis, and many still don't today. But I always told my friends and family that I had hep C. I didn't have the problems that I know some people have, with their friends thinking it is stigmatising, the same way some people think about Aids.
For more information, visit www.hepctrust.org.uk
