Young woman, 22, hasn’t been able to eat food since 2010 after tummy bug on India holiday paralysed her stomach
Ayllah-Beau Foley suffers from ultra-rare gastroparesis
A YOUNG woman hasn't eaten in six YEARS due to an ultra-rare condition which paralysed her stomach muscles.
Ayllah-Beau Foley, 22, developed gastroparesis aged just 16 after returning from a holiday in India.
Initially, she thought she was suffering from so-called "Delhi belly". But as she continued vomiting, doctors said she had acid reflux - before going on to decide she had appendicitis.
Her weight had plummeted to less than 6 stone and she was wearing clothes for 10-year-olds when she was finally diagnosed with gastroparesis 18 months later.
Ayllah-Beau, from Cheltenham, was fed through a tiny tube transporting nutrients directly from her jugular vein into her heart until she suffered almost-fatal septicaemia in April - for the fifth time.
Her mum, Chris, explained: "There was a 30 per cent chance of survival.
"We all pulled together as a family and supported each other, but a few days later, once things were looking a bit better that's when I crumbled.
"It makes you appreciate what you have got."
Now Ayllah-Beau, who wanted to train as a chef before falling ill, has been forced to switch to a painful tube feeding directly into her bowels - a change which has seen her drop to a size six.
Doctors remain clueless as to why she developed the condition - and various treatments including a gastric pacemaker have failed.
If she were to eat normal food, her stomach would be unable to process it - leaving it undigested and causing her to vomit.
But medics at St Mark's Hospital in London are now working on a ground-breaking project using stem cells to grow new bowel tissue, which could provide her with a cure in the future.