Chance contact alerted walker to disease

Published on Thursday 24 May 2007 12:02

A CHANCE encounter with an expert on the potentially fatal Lyme disease may have saved the life of an Edinburgh hillwalker.

Experienced walker Sylvia Miller has been put on antibiotics by her doctor and is awaiting test results to see if she has contracted the disease.

But the 60-year-old, from Dedridge, Livingston, might never have had the tests had it not been for a e meeting with the head of a charity dedicated to raising awareness of Lyme's disease.

Mrs Miller, who spends weekends walking across Scotland with other members of the St Andrews Ramblers group, was baffled when she started having bad headaches, joint pains and sickness after a recent walk in Pitlochry, Perthshire.

She went to her doctor after becoming increasingly tired and was told she had an inflamed liver. Despite several blood tests, however, doctors were at a loss to explain what the problem was.

It was not until her chance encounter with Katrina Anderson that Mrs Miller realised it was connected with a tick bite.

Mrs Anderson, 47, of South Gyle, has suffered from Lyme disease for more than 15 years, and two years ago set up Borreliosis and Associated Diseases Awareness UK (BADA-UK) to raise awareness of ticks and tick-borne disease.

While shopping at an outdoors store, she heard Mrs Miller talking about a planned walk in Arran, and advised her to wear long trousers to prevent a tick bite.

Mrs Miller said: "I told her I had recently had a tick bite and she asked if I'd been feeling all right since then. I was really surprised and then she reeled off my symptoms. I went to the doctor's straight away and they agreed it could be Lyme disease and put me on antibiotics."

"I really do think Mrs Anderson could have saved my life, as it seems the longer this is untreated the more dangerous it is.

"I was amazed I'd never heard about this disease. As a hillwalker, I suppose I might have been expected to know about it."

The debilitating infection is spread by the tiny blood-sucking insects and, if left untreated, Lyme disease can affect the central nervous system and the brain and, in extreme cases, can even cause death.

The problem is on the rise in Scotland, with recent figures showing the number of cases having risen from ten a decade ago to 177 last year.

Mrs Miller has now said she will be providing as many hillwalkers as she can with information about the disease.

"If any of our walkers is bitten by a tick, I will be warning them to go to their doctor and be tested, as it's the only way they will ever know," she said.

Mrs Anderson, who has been campaigning for more research and treatment of the disease, as well as a greater recognition of it, said: "I'm just really glad I was in the right place at the right time - it's very lucky, as otherwise it might not have been diagnosed for a long time.

"Hopefully with Mrs Miller they will have caught it in time."