A 25-year-old Cornish tattoo artist has described how a rare condition has left her feeling like an old lady.

Lauren Nicholson, from Liskeard, suffers from pectus excavatum and wants to share her story in the hope it may help others suffering from it.

Pectus excavatum (also known as funnel chest) is a chest wall deformity present at birth in Laurens case. The condition affects one in 1,000 babies born and only 4% of those are female.

Lauren, who runs Jankerella Ink and Dreads in Liskeard, battles daily with lung and heart compression, dizziness, lack of energy and poor self-body image leading to depression.

She said: I suffered a little from asthma but overall was a sporty child. It wasnt until I hit puberty that I noticed the constant aching and couldn't walk for more than 15 minutes without gasping for air and turning a bright red shade.

From the ages of 10-22 my whole body would hurt but I had no idea my deformed chest was pushing on my heart and lungs and carried on with life thinking I was just very unfit for my age.

It wasnt until I opened my own tattoo studio and was working full time that I realised the effects my chest and back were having on my life and that I needed to investigate further.

Several failed visits to doctors who didn't know what to do with me and I was feeling hopeless.

"Fortunately I found a pectus excavatum group on Facebook that gave me hope and information but also some bad news. This condition can be fixed with the help of surgery.

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Both of the life-changing operations that can tackle pectus excavatum were taken off the NHS so Laurens only hope is to save up to go private.

In the meantime she hopes that the efforts of surgeons and sufferers in raising awareness about pectus excavatum will result in it being put back on the NHS.

Lauren added: From a young age I was told this stent would be nothing to worry about and thought nothing of it.

But now Im like an old lady struggling to get around and to breathe. Im trying my best to pull through things but want to do my bit to make people aware of the condition as no doctors really know what to do with me other than to give me painkillers.

Read more from the original source:

Young Cornish tattooist is 'like an old lady' because of condition - Cornwall Live