A NORTH Tyne woman who relies on specialist treatment to treat a rare condition has described her “terrifying” lockdown experience during the coronavirus crisis.

Carrie Beckwith-Fellows, who lives in Wark with partner Lisa, has Ehlers-danlos syndrome, which affects her connective tissues, and she relies on bags of nutrients on a daily basis.

She is currently spending three months shielding indoors after being placed on the extremely vulnerable person list by medics at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital.

Lisa is also following shielding measures, and is not allowed to leave the house other than emergency medical reasons due to the lack of alternative medical support for Carrie.

Speaking about life in lockdown in a Facebook post on the Carrie’s Fund page, the couple said their main aim was to keep Carrie’s condition as stable as possible to avoid any need to attend hospital or be admitted.

“This makes managing by ourselves with Total Parenteral Nutrition, new feeding tube regimes and ongoing infections difficult,” the couple said.

“But we simply have to get on with it like many other people with complex or life-threatening medical conditions right now.”

Although Carrie’s mobility has been badly affected by Ehlers-danlos syndrome, she said being forced to stay at home was not unusual.

Carrie and Lisa explained: “We have had no contact from our care teams and have been unable to get supermarket food delivery slot for nearly a month.

“It’s been terrifying. Sitting up at midnight every night for weeks cycling through every supermarket website trying to find an available slot to no avail.”

The Government is currently advising extremely vulnerable people to shield until the end of June, while it has also said it can help by delivering essential groceries and support.

Lisa added: “We are hoping now we are on the shielding list we will begin to get some support and access to the online delivery slots from the local supermarkets. How and when that will happen we do not know.

“We’re stuck in a stalemate. Ask for help and create extremely stressful situations that cause Carrie to shutdown completely, or wait it out and hope our shielding support comes.”