‘What’s going on with me?’ Canadian victims of mystery illness suffer alone

Johanne Boucher: ‘I can’t even order a coffee. All I can do is write. I don’t know what I have. The disease remains unknown.’ Photograph: Handout

For more than two years, dozens of people in the Canadian province of New Brunswick have suffered from a distressing array of neurological symptoms, prompting speculation that they had fallen victim to an unknown degenerative illness.

Provincial authorities are soon expected to release a report examining whether the cases are linked, or simply the result of misdiagnosis and clinical error. But as the public awaits the findings, those enduring the extreme symptoms say they’ve been left to suffer alone.