A man who almost took his own life due to the extreme pain he was in every day, watched his own leg being chopped off in a bid to be free of the "Suicide Disease" which tortured him for years.
Andrew Lawton was rushing to buy Valentine’s Day gifts back in 2019 when his knee buckled underneath him. At first, he didn’t think much of it, but his life changed forever.
The slightest touch of his leg would result in severe bruising and ulcers; even a dressing to cover up a wound would cause the skin surrounding it to die.
The 44-year-old would rarely go outside, anxious others would be disgusted seeing the sight of his open wounds that he was unable to cover up with trousers or even a blanket as they would leave him in excruciating pain.
The father-of-one was even sacked from his job when his boss said he was too slow to walk down the stairs during a fire drill at the office. He subsequently won a discrimination claim and more than £30,000 compensation.
Andrew, from Leigh, Lancashire, was eventually diagnosed with CRPS - Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome - also know as the Suicide Disease.
He told the Mirror it was only the thought of leaving his partner Amy and 16-year-old son Tyler that stopped him taking his own life on four occasions, as he battled with the pain that would be with him 24 hours a day.
IT manager Andrew said: "I was in extreme pain 24 hours a day for three and a half years. It felt like someone was giving me a Chinese burn, like your skin was being pulled in two different directions, it's that burn you feel all the time.
"I had deep bruising from my thigh to my foot and it just got progressively worse day by day, the bruising and the ulcers were like torture.
"CRPS is unusual so they had to test me for everything else first, I was put on controlled narcotics for the pain, but they had to keep upping the dose and by the end I was on six different ones at the maximum dose, which would just start to take the edge off."
Andrew stayed at home, worried people would stare at him or be put off their food in a restaurant if they saw the state of his leg, and if he was caught in the rain every drop would cause his skin to burn.
Before CRPS entered his life, Andrew would volunteer at Formula 1 races, jumping over the barriers after crashes, and would also Scuba dive in his spare time.
"I just shut myself off from the world and stopped all my hobbies. It was like my world had shrunk.
"It's called the suicide disease and I had been down that route three or four times, especially towards the end.
"I knew my pain would be gone, but I'd just be passing that pain onto the ones I love, my partner Amy and my 16-year-old Tyler, who is doing his GCSEs now.
"I'm the main breadwinner, I couldn't leave them behind to deal with that."
By June 6, 2022 Andrew was in so much pain he blacked out, and was found unconscious on his kitchen floor by his partner who called 999. While waiting for the ambulance, he came round, but immediately passed out again, as his body shut down.
Over the next two days, he was in and out of consciousness in hospital. Doctors struggled to get to grips with his pain medication, and the decision to go ahead with an above-the-knee leg amputation was confirmed.
Andrew had already been through psychological testing to make sure he knew what to expect, but doctors warned him that going under general anaesthetic and waking up with his leg gone, could mean he would get "phantom" leg pain and defeat the purpose of taking the leg away.
He added that he was actually relieved when he was told by doctors he was going to get the amputation, but was warned it may not be a cure, and CRPS could come back at any point in his life in a different part of his body.
Andrew opted to watch the surgery in the hope it would lessen the chance of phantom pain, and said after the epidural went in he knew it was the right decision.
"After the epidural, while I was waiting for the surgery, I broke down in tears.
"It was the first time I had been pain-free in three and a half years. From that day I haven't felt any more pain."
Andrew now has a prosthetic leg and is getting his life back on track. He is planning to take part in a skydive to help raise money for others in the same position, and has a kickstarter business to help the NHS with cheaper and better prosthetics.
The NHS website admits that "CRPS is poorly understood" and in June, the Mirror spoke to the mum of 11-year-old Dillon Wilford, from Bolton, who also has the condition.
Like Andrew, the schoolboy has suffered debilitating pain and told his mum he wanted to die to escape the agony.
Dillon's mum Melanie told the Mirror that her son was screaming “24 hours a day” and can’t stand the “wind or rain” on his skin.
She said: “When people hear that Dillon is in pain they think his leg hurts a lot but it’s important people realise CRPS doesn’t just hurt, it’s excruciating constant pain 24 hours a day.
“As a family we are pretty broken, myself and [his sister] Maddie have both listened to Dillon saying he wanted to die, imagine hearing your 10-year-old say he wants to hurt himself to numb the pain of his leg, how absolutely heartbreaking this is for us."
Dillon’s family spent almost £18,500 to travel from the UK to the US for specialised treatment, and he has become pain-free for the first time in months.
Melanie, Dillon’s mum added: “Honestly it’s just unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable, and all of that was in the space of a couple of days.”
The family is now campaigning for the VECTTOR machine, which helps Dillon to stimulate the nerves to produce certain neuropeptides that are essential for the body function, reducing his pain levels, to be available on the NHS.
