A 10-year-old boy has heartbreakingly begged his mum to help him get his leg amputated in a bit to end the misery of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome [CRPS] – the agonising condition known as “The Suicide Disease”.
Dillon Wilford was diagnosed with CRPS back in late January after months of trying to find a diagnosis for his excruciating pain.
The condition, which is not yet fully understood by doctors, leaves victims so sensitive that even the slightest touch to the affected area causes severe pain.
Now his mum Melanie Wilford is trying to raise £100,000 to take Dillon to America to get specialised hospital treatment that's not available in the UK.
Dillon first started showing symptoms back in November 2021 when he woke up with a limp – he spent the day at school but by the end of the day he was left in debilitating pain.
After months of hospital visits and many stumped professionals, Dillion was finally diagnosed with CRPS by a doctor in his local Bolton Hospital.
Single mum-of-four Melanie, 47, and her daughter Maddison, 24, have been helping to care for the poor lad.
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Melanie, a student nurse, said: "We're raising 100k for him to send him to America, a clinic in Arkansas.
"It's a 16-week treatment and it's every single day. They do over a 120-blood tests – they haven't even tested his blood over here. In the UK they don't do anything like that.
"There's no known cure for CRPS but they can get people into remission. Once you've got CRPS you've got it for life. Once you go to America, they get you walking again.
"The people I've been speaking to in other countries don't seem to get it back after they've had the treatment in the US.
"It was four weeks between physio appointments and that isn't on".
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Poor Dillon's condition is so severe that his mum can't even touch the affected area without Dillon being subject to horrific pain.
Melanie added: "One day he was eating a strawberry one tiny seed fell off and hit his leg and he screamed. If he gets a cat hair on his leg, he screams.
"This is hell, absolute hell. It's like a life sentence for a child. In America they do cut price amputations in the US for people with CRPS.
"I'm speaking to one woman who had to have her arm removed as the pain was that bad.
"He's begged me to have his leg removed. He told me he wanted to die. It's horrific to watch my cheeky boy end up like this. People need to know how bad it is. For a little boy who has this, he hasn't been to school in three months.”
Melanie is now looking to raise awareness of the condition after Dillion's symptoms flared up overnight as he woke up with a limp.
She said: "I want to raise awareness for it. There was no trigger for it. It was completely random, he woke up one morning and he was limping. That night he screamed all night horrifically. The next day I took him to A&E and they said there was nothing wrong with him.
"We asked for referrals to Manchester Children's Hospital but it was refused as they didn't do anything about it.
"They thought he might lose his leg as there was no blood flow to his leg. He was put on morphine and he had a really bad reaction to it.
"It is known as the suicide disease. It affects their mental that badly. He couldn't use his crutches anymore as he was in hospital bed bound a lot. I was worried he'd waste away to nothing.
"He screams every night. The first sound I hear when I wake up is my son screaming. He screams all the time".
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