"I have a blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leidens Deficiency.
It all started when i was 16, i woke up one day and i couldnt move the left hand side of my body, it turned out i had had a stroke. A blood clot had formed in my blood and travelled threw my brain where it blocked the blood flow to my brain and i had a transescemic stroke.

One year later i had a pulmonary embolism, a clot in my lung. That was actually worse than the stroke because i couldnt breath, it was very scary. Since then ive had six clots in my lungs and two in my legs (D.V.T). I take alot of medications to try and prevent this happening and i go into the hospital every week for blood tests to see that the medications are working. Its been like this for the past 8 years. When im well im almost perfectly normal. I get cold and tired easily, i bleed and bruse because of the medication and i have to be very careful about the tablets but other than that i can get on with life and forget about my illness. (With the exception of the weekly hospital trips)

I now have scar tissue on my lungs from the clots, residual pain and im prone to chest infections. I probably wont be able to have children, concieving would be ok but it would be unlikely that i would carry a child full term without having a miscarriage, so docs advise me not too, its too dangerous for me.

But its not all bad. Luckily im alive, and im so thankful for this. One in 5 pulmonary emboli are fatal as 20% of people die of respiratory and cardiac failure within the first hour, so having survived 7 of them i think im haunted or at least one of the luckiest people around. Ive not been really sick in nearly a year now and outside of ana my life is good."