Super Sky News & BBC LANCASHIRE

Wow..

I mean what a way to finish and month and kick start August. Sky News wanted to highlight Lyme Disease a little more after all the BBC coverage over the weekend. I am sure many of you will have tuned in to the wonderful Countryfile on Sunday evening. If you didn't manage to catch it, DON'T WORRY you can catch up on IPLAYER today! The BBC really have put a lot of work into helping us raise awareness, educating the public but also putting pressure on the Government and the health community to change and MAKE changes to combat this complex illness that many still have never heard of or lack knowledge.

Now, it is amazing that another massive news company want to highlight our disease and hopefully again drum up interest, educate people and drive change.

We don't accept these interviews or media coverage lightly. It takes a lot of strength and courage to talk in front of a camera and even more so IN FRONT of the nation. THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS of viewers. People often just see me on face-value, as they will do most campaigner's. They just want 15 minutes to rant and rave on TV but that isn't the case. We are open about our struggles, so that people will understand and see the pain we suffer through but we also have to keep positive and be uplifting to empower and inspire people to keep fighting.

Our aim, with all our media work is to show our respect for the NHS and health communities, we understand they are overwhelmed, over-run and overworked. The funds are limited and treatments, tests and research is expensive not to mention the amount of different health issues and diseases that are out there. We understand - we do.

We go on and tell our stories, help educate and arm people with the knowledge they need to protect themselves in hope that we can protect and save lives from the hell that we go through EVERYDAY. We also try to lighten the load of the NHS as someone with chronic Lyme - like myself has check up's weekly, is in and out of hospital - it all costs money and I am only 24! I may have up to another 60 years, who knows. Throughout that time think about all the scans, x-rays, tests and so forth I may need.

We can help lighten the load hopefully for the NHS by speaking up and making people aware. We aren't attacking them, in many ways they have let us down but ultimately we can forgive our own pain if it saves others from that pain.

We also fight for the NHS to listen to us because we again are trying avoid a massive, issue in the future if Lyme which is already a complex disease becomes more savvy and infects more and more people, what then? We need to get a grip on it now before it becomes too big for us to handle.

I just truly hope that all the work we are doing drives change!

Just this morning, I was in the doctors - for my weekly checks, to check my heart, liver, kidney's, blood count and so on, trying to get them all done before my interview with Sky. when I received a call from BBC Lancashire asking if they could be a my house for 6.30am to go live at 7am. Of course I agreed, but then your head just feels like it is going to explode. Everything is so fast paced, and last minute when it comes to the media and for someone suffering with a chronic illness, going with the flow is no easy task. The passion, motivation and drive to make a difference however outweighs any fears, doubts and pain I have.

My life hasn't gone as planned, I suffer a lot of pain emotionally and physically and may not always feel happiness within myself or my circumstances but if I can look back on the life I have led and have made people happy, protect them, helped drive change for the better and being a positive role model then I really couldn't of asked for a better way to be remembered.

Don't forget to tune in to Sky News which you can find on your Freeview channels at 6am, hourly ( hopefully if Trump doesn't say anything too silly in between no and then- maybe I should just go and stitch his lips together for the day so the Lyme disease feature reaches as many people as possible) throughout the morning. It will also be on Sky News online, with a smaller feature.

If you are driving to work at 7am tomorrow morning, you can catch me on BBC Lancashire at 7am!

Once again a BIG thank you must go out to you ALL for all your lovely messages, support and love you give me everyday. I really do endeavour to write back personally to you all because I appreciate you take a lot of time to write to me, so I want to show how appreciative I am of your time and support.

Enjoy and THANK YOU... let's keep this ball rolling, let's change the world and make it a better place.

Here is a link to my BBC BREAKFAST interview if you missed it: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fx6qj5lp&h=AT2wc9DaeA5FHNagRTwFt90RWloPESzIS-uyesAo-6kJoRJX8UeGYqevoKlpfJpQw44iuwSkS4UuiV_601ezVf_2gaNqTqwYTF2x15JtQww7F73yX4oiBN1XYi7S4eOvFSw

Soph xo

#Media #skynews #BBC