A benefits fraudster who sold counterfeit designer fashion through Instagram has insisted that the £158,000 discovered hidden among baby clothes represented her children’s savings.

Megan Carney-Borrowman marketed fake items branded as Chanel, Burberry and Versace to thousands of social media followers.

The mother built a lucrative online operation, with bank accounts connected to her receiving more than £4million over a four-year period.

Carney-Borrowman, a mother of four from Southport, Merseyside, was assisted by her 35-year-old husband, Jordan Borrowman. Her mother, 65-year-old Sandra Carney, and longtime business associate Adam Yaffe, 53, were also involved.

All four defendants were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court this week. Carney-Borrowman received four years and three months in prison after admitting conspiracy to commit trademark offences.

The couple’s home was first raided in November 2022 after Chanel alerted anti-counterfeiting investigators to the suspected operation. Neither was at home, and both later claimed they did not have their phones.

Borrowman told officers that his phone had been lost and was never found. However, the court heard that the device was used again after his arrest.

Carney-Borrowman also attempted to mislead investigators by handing over her son’s phone and presenting it as her own. Her actual handset was later recovered, and messages on it helped police establish Yaffe’s role in the scheme.

A review of Carney-Borrowman’s accounts after her first arrest revealed substantial cash withdrawals. When officers searched the property again in April 2023, they found her phone concealed on top of a curtain rail in the main bedroom.

Prosecutor James Rae told the court that Carney-Borrowman had tried to stop officers from searching her baby’s bedroom. He said the reason became clear when police discovered £158,000 in cash hidden inside. The money was seized despite her claim that it was made up of savings withdrawn for her children.

The phone became a key piece of evidence. Investigators found a huge number of messages showing, in the prosecution’s words, that she was selling counterfeit products and using a drop-shipping arrangement, with overseas suppliers sending orders directly to customers.

Police identified eight business bank accounts and 18 personal accounts linked to Carney-Borrowman, including some held in the names of her young children. Between 2019 and 2023, almost £4,319,952.73 passed through the business accounts, while £753,419.50 was transferred into her personal accounts.

She was arrested for benefit fraud in May 2024. A Department for Work and Pensions investigation concluded that she had fraudulently obtained about £68,300 by failing to declare self-employment income, the purchase of two properties, her living arrangements with Borrowman and their shared assets.

Carney-Borrowman was also accused of making a false insurance claim after telling Halifax that she had lost an expensive Rolex during a night out in Blackpool. When officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit visited her home, they saw her wearing a watch with the same serial number as the one reported missing.

Body-worn footage released by the NWROCU captures an officer questioning her about the Rolex. Asked whether she was wearing one, Carney-Borrowman replied: “It’s not real… you’re not taking it off me. It was for my 30th birthday.”

When instructed to surrender the watch, she said: “It’s actually my mum and dad who got it for me so I could probably get a receipt.” After initially disputing its authenticity, she was asked directly whether it was genuine and confirmed that it was.

Mr Rae described Carney-Borrowman as the “prime mover” behind the criminal operation, saying she had been “clearly supported and encouraged by her mother”. Borrowman was considered a major beneficiary of the counterfeit profits and had helped sell, package and transport products, although the court heard he played a supporting role. Yaffe was said to have encouraged, cautioned and advised Carney-Borrowman.

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Defending Carney-Borrowman, Nicholas Clarke said her remorse was not driven by self-pity but reflected “the genuine fear she has for her children”. He told the court that all four children had developmental concerns and that the youngest required continuing appointments at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

Mr Clarke said: ‘Her children revolve around her and most of her waking life is dealing with them…the reports set out the concerns she has about all of the children being looked after by others.’

He told the court that Carney-Borrowman had PTSD following the tragic death of a child in April 2022. The prosecution said that Carney-Borrowman had lied to the author of her original pre-sentence report and claimed she only started selling counterfeit goods as a result of her daughter’s death when she felt unable to engage in conventional employment.

Michael Lavery, for Carney, said his client had worked her whole adult life, had carried out several selfless acts ‘over a number of years to assist people less fortunate than her’ and had supported her two daughters; both of whom had children of their own.

He told the court: ‘It seems to anyone approaching this case that this is a mother doing her best for a daughter who has a number of problems. There is no more a person than a mother who wants to help her child, misguided and naïve it has been.’

Richard Vardon, representing Borrowman, said: ‘It may be the position that the mother of the children cannot care for them in the immediate future so they would be more impacted if this defendant was to go to prison as well.’

Andy Evans, for Yaffe, told the court his client’s offending was characterised by his relationship with Carney-Borrowman. ‘He assisted her with things mundane, things tragic and difficult, and things happier, such as becoming her wedding photographer,’ he said.

Sentencing, Judge Louise Brandon said: ‘The business operated through Instagram accounts and WhatsApp ordering systems with multiple bank accounts, corporate structures, direct overseas suppliers, drop-ship methods, concealed payments and efforts to avoid detection.’

The judge added: ‘Involvement at any level of counterfeiting are grave offences. You all contributed. It is a consequence of your arrests that your families will also suffer from your criminality.’

Judge Brandon told Carney-Borrowman: ‘I can’t accept that your customers all believed they were buying counterfeit goods. If that was the case we would not be here today…You feel you are the victim. Your actions caused your children to see the police in your own home. You have no one else to blame for the impact on your children. You seem unable or unwilling to grasp that your situation is entirely of your own making.’

Carney-Borrowman, 35, and of Birdling Drive in Southport, was sentenced to four years and three months for conspiracy to commit trademark offences, conspiracy to launder money, benefit fraud, and conspiracy to defraud.

Borrowman, 35, and of the same address, received 12 months, suspended for 18 months and 120 hours of unpaid work after admitting conspiracy to commit trademark offences, conspiracy to launder money and benefit fraud.

Carney, 65, and of Court Road was handed two years, suspended for 18 months with 120 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit trademark offences, conspiracy to acquire criminal property, aiding and abetting fraud and conspiracy to defraud.

And Yaffe walked free from court with an 18-month community order and 120 hours of unpaid work after he admitted conspiracy to commit trademark offences and conspiracy to acquire criminal property.

Speaking after sentencing, Detective Inspector Adam Williams of the NWROCU, said: ‘This was a sophisticated and long-running trademarks and money laundering offence which generated significant profits through the sale of counterfeit designer goods while simultaneously exploiting public funds and defrauding an insurance company.

‘The defendants went to considerable lengths to disguise their offending, but detailed financial investigation and partnership working enabled us to uncover the full extent of their criminality.

‘Counterfeit goods are far from a victimless crime. The proceeds often support wider organised criminality, while consumers are deceived into purchasing products they believe to be genuine. This case demonstrates our commitment to pursuing offenders who seek to profit through fraud and protecting both businesses and the public from financial harm.’

When Kristin Logan learned she had stage-four ovarian cancer, doctors warned that her prospects for survival were poor.

What she did not anticipate was receiving information about how to end her life before she had even been referred to an oncologist to discuss possible treatment.

Soon after her diagnosis in September 2023, the Canadian received pamphlets in the mail about the country’s medical assistance in dying, or MAiD, programme.

Kristin, 46, had spent months trying to secure medical attention while doctors repeatedly dismissed her symptoms. Now, she says, the healthcare system appeared to be ‘setting’ her up to die.

‘My husband and I just looked at each other,’ Kristin told the Daily Mail. ‘It was basically like getting mail that repeated what my doctor had said: “This will end your life,” and then, “Here are your options for that”.’

By the time she received the diagnosis, Kristin was already gravely unwell. Fluid had built up in her lungs, she was experiencing intense pain and her weight was falling rapidly.

A dual Canadian-American citizen and US Air Force veteran, she decided that leaving Canada was her best chance of getting the care she needed to survive.

In what she describes as a period of ‘extreme medical duress’, Kristin was too weak to walk when she was taken aboard a ferry from British Columbia. Her husband and daughter watched from the pier.

‘I didn’t know if I was going to see my husband and daughter again. They didn’t know if they were ever going to see me alive again,’ she recalled.

The events that followed, Kristin says, exposed what she believes are deep failings in Canada’s healthcare system — and showed how MAiD can erode hope for patients still fighting to live.

‘It took me years, to be honest, to register how cruel and inhumane that was, and how dystopian it is,’ she said. ‘They had no business sending that kind of information to people… It’s extremely disturbing.’

After leaving the ferry, Kristin arrived in Vancouver, where her parents collected her and drove her across the US border to Seattle.

She was then enrolled in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system, which provides medical benefits to US military veterans, and began receiving cancer treatment.

Kristin says the difference in approach was immediately apparent. Despite the seriousness of her illness, American healthcare workers were determined to pursue every possible avenue to extend her life.

‘They’re all plugged into that mentality of, “We’re going to keep you alive. We’re going to keep it going”,’ she said.

‘That’s very different from being looked in the face and told, “You’re going to die”. It’s also very different from immediately getting information about your end-of-life options.’

Canada operates one of the world’s broadest euthanasia programmes. Its government-funded MAiD system became legal in 2016.

The programme permits terminally ill people to request death administered by a doctor or nurse, typically through an injection. In 2021, the law was expanded to cover people who were not terminally ill but had an incurable illness, condition or disability.

Its expansion has, however, sparked fierce backlash among conservative politicians, medical professionals and disability advocacy groups, who fear assisted dying is becoming a substitute for proper healthcare. 

Doctors and provincial authorities in recent years have reported euthanasia deaths among those seeking the procedure because they were poor, homeless or unable to seek the government support they needed to live. 

Kristin says, in her case, she felt she was being subtly pressured to undergo MAiD.

‘I felt pushed to accept what seemed the inevitability of my demise and contribute to society and my family by speeding that along. As if it was selfish of me to want to live,’ she says. 

‘When the institution is giving you information about dying when they’re not giving you information about how they’re going to treat you, when they’re going to treat you, or how it’s going to work out, that leaves you feeling like they don’t want you to get treatment.’

She adds that MAiD is particularly being ‘shoved’ on the disabled or ill to remove a perceived burden from a strained healthcare system.

‘They don’t need, and should not be getting, a constant reminder from the government that they ought to kill themselves.’ 

‘It just sucks the hope out of the room completely… I think that is the worst thing you can make a cancer patient feel,’ she adds.

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Early last year, Kristin and her family moved permanently to the US. 

She says she no longer felt ‘safe’ in Canada after her healthcare experience, so chose to build a new life across the border.

Now Kristin, who was once told she only had months to live, is in remission. 

To mark how far she has come, Kristin and her husband, Donovan James, climbed one of the highest mountain peaks in Texas’ Big Bend National Park. 

At the summit, with the vast Texas landscape surrounding them, Donovan filmed a video condemning Canada’s healthcare system.  

‘Here we are, we’re sitting on top of the world,’ he says in the clip on social media. 

‘[Kristin] still has the strength and stamina to hike two hours up to the top of this mountain peak… something that would never have happened had we stayed in Canada. She’d be dead.’

‘This is evil… and Canadians have made this their culture that it’s normal and OK to just go kill yourself because a doctor says there is no hope,’ he continued. 

‘Where is the death? Do you see death? I don’t see death, I see somebody fighting.’ 

Kristin is currently taking part in a maintenance drug trial, which she says is ‘very promising’.

But while Kristin chose to keep fighting for her life, she says her experience has left her deeply critical of the system she believes failed her when it was needed most. 

‘If the government is responsible for healthcare and they are not providing it in a medically reasonable fashion — in terms of time and quality — and then they turn around and offer medical assistance in dying, and you can get that much faster than you can get care and treatment, that’s a problem… It feels very sinister,’ she says. 

‘I think the government should be taking a hard look at why they are faster to kill their citizens than to help them and treat them. Fix the healthcare system before you keep expanding a nicer death.’

MAiD came under fire last month after a Canadian woman claimed her Christian grandmother was euthanised against her will. 

After taking a cognitive test, designed to ascertain whether she was sound of mind enough to consent to MAiD, Brigitte Stegemann, 83, ‘got every question wrong’, her granddaughter Brigitte Kranendonk told the Daily Mail. 

Just 48 hours after she wept uncontrollably at the notion of MAiD, Stegemann is said to have died with her hands clasped in prayer. She was covered in her own blood due to a botched first attempt at connecting the IV, administered by a nurse allegedly not wearing gloves.

Kranendonk is appealing to the Chief Coroner’s Office in Ontario, as well as the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police, in a bid to ascertain whether what happened the morning of July 10 at The Pearl care home in Cannifton was legal.

Bereaved and distraught, she claims MAiD practitioners took advantage of her grandmother’s vulnerability to perform the procedure, which she alleges was carried out without express consent.

‘She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,’ Kranendonk said. 

She suspects the MAiD practitioners were ideologically motivated, and believes the chain of events leading up to the procedure should be investigated.

Medically assisted suicide in Canada is responsible for nearly one in ten deaths in some parts of the country, according to the New York Post. 

Kristin suggests the number could be much lower if healthcare were more adequate.

‘I think the government should be taking a hard look at why they are faster to kill their citizens than to help them and treat them,’ she said.

‘How many of those deaths could have been avoided if people had received timely care, timely medical imaging, timely testing, and had a family doctor? Had they received the care they needed, how many people would have been in that position?’ 

‘I’m sure they would have rather chosen to have timely treatment and care. You left them without that, and now they were suffering, and that was the only way to end the suffering. That’s not humane, and that’s not dignified.’

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from building border barriers across Texas’s Big Bend sector, rejecting government warnings that construction in other areas could divert illegal crossings to the region.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone issued the injunction in El Paso after local residents and preservation advocates sued to halt the project. Her order stops construction and related activity throughout the Big Bend sector, including Big Bend National Park, while the legal challenge moves forward.

“The federal government shall not build border barrier or related infrastructure, or engage in any construction or ground disturbing activities, in the Big Bend sector,” Cardone wrote in the two-page order, which she read aloud in court.

Cardone also prohibited the government from using waivers of environmental and other laws that had been issued to accelerate construction. She said officials “must comply with all applicable laws” and determined that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on at least one of their claims.

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The plaintiffs include Billy Miller, a river guide from Terlingua, Texas, and a church preservation organization. Their lawsuit came after months of opposition and repeated starts and stops in the construction effort.

Opponents say the area’s remote, rugged landscape already acts as a deterrent to illegal crossings and warn that border barriers would harm the terrain. The Big Bend sector has recorded significantly fewer crossings than other sections of the Texas-Mexico border.

River guides and environmental advocates applauded outside the El Paso courthouse after Cardone announced her ruling.

“We dodged a bullet today,” Miller said. “It means that we can continue to introduce people to the wildness. Their plan was going to ruin the experience of anybody going out there.”

A 102-year-old woman has died and around 90 people have been rescued after flash floods struck a Spanish town.

The woman was found dead inside her home in Madrigueras, about 120 miles north-west of Alicante, yesterday evening.

Floodwater inside the property reportedly rose to more than three feet.

Police released shocking photographs and video showing the devastation caused by the freak storm. In the centre of the town, cars were thrown on top of one another as a torrent of fast-moving water swept through the streets.

Spain issued its highest-level weather warning yesterday, urging people to remain indoors as powerful storms threatened popular holiday destinations along the country’s eastern coast.

From upper-floor balconies, residents watched helplessly as roads became rivers and vehicles were dragged away by the floodwater.

One man was filmed sheltering behind his vehicle as torrential rain sent a violent surge of water rushing around it.

Civil Guard officers in Albacete, the province where Madrigueras is located, said on X: ‘The intense rainfall has caused flooding on urban and interurban roads. The large volume of water has inundated streets and swept away vehicles.’

The police force also issued a warning to residents and visitors: ‘Avoid unnecessary travel and do not cross flooded areas.’

The scenes evoked memories of the 2024 Valencia floods, known as the dana, which killed 232 people, including British pensioners Don and Terri Turner.

About 90 people were rescued in the latest flooding in Spain, with most being trapped inside their homes before emergency teams reached them.

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The flash floods began at approximately 6pm yesterday.

Regional authorities had issued weather warnings, but the sheer scale of the flooding caught local residents off guard.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms also hit parts of the Costa Blanca last night, where orange and yellow weather alerts were in force.

Dramatic images from Tortosa in Catalonia captured the aftermath of yesterday’s flooding.

One photograph showed a washing machine floating along a street that was completely submerged beneath the floodwater.

Restaurant staff were also seen clearing mud and debris from inside a building.

Forecasters expect the unstable weather to continue into next week, with eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands most at risk.

The warning level has been raised to red in the worst-hit areas, the highest alert issued by Spain’s weather agency.

Officials warned the designation is reserved for situations where there is a risk of severe impacts to both people and property.

Residents were urged to stay indoors, avoid all unnecessary travel and steer clear of flood-prone areas, underpasses and normally dry riverbeds, which can quickly fill with water during intense downpours.

Authorities also advised people to keep a close watch on vulnerable relatives and neighbours, including elderly people, children and those with disabilities.

For a decade, Claire Lynch was prescribed heartburn medication for persistent stomach pain, headaches and a lack of energy.

Doctors diagnosed her with chronic gastritis and several other digestive conditions. However, after consultations with five gastroenterologists, her symptoms continued without relief.

The eventual explanation was autoimmune gastritis — the same condition affecting US biohacker and longevity influencer Bryan Johnson.

The disease affects an estimated 500,000 people in the UK. It develops when the immune system attacks the stomach lining, reducing stomach acid and often causing deficiencies in vitamin B12 and iron.

Symptoms can include extreme tiredness, anaemia and neurological problems such as pins and needles, changes in mood and poor balance. If the condition goes untreated, it may cause permanent nerve damage. Some patients develop memory problems or become more likely to fall, while in rare cases they can eventually require a wheelchair. Although uncommon, autoimmune gastritis may also raise the risk of stomach cancer.

Yet the condition is frequently overlooked, leaving patients to cope with debilitating symptoms for years. When it is identified early, however, treatment can often be straightforward, with vitamin injections helping to correct deficiencies.

Claire recalls that her health problems began in 2005, when she developed abdominal pain, bloating, persistent headaches, joint pain and fatigue.

She was in her 40s and working for a bank in the City of London. As gluten-free diets were becoming widely discussed, she decided to try one herself. Within a few months, many of her symptoms appeared to have eased.

In 2011, a course of antibiotics prescribed after a tooth infection led to severe diarrhoea and stomach cramps. Over the following two months, Claire lost around a stone and a half.

“I saw a doctor who advised me to try probiotics, but they made no difference, so he referred me to a gastroenterologist,” she says.

A month later, Claire underwent a colonoscopy, during which a small camera was used to examine her colon. The procedure revealed collagenous colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease that can cause ongoing watery diarrhoea and weight loss. It is also an autoimmune condition.

“I was treated with steroids, which cleared up the colitis, but another blood test showed I had anti-parietal gastric cell antibodies,” she says.

These antibodies wrongly target parietal cells in the stomach lining. Those cells produce stomach acid as well as intrinsic factor, a protein needed to absorb vitamin B12 — a nutrient vital to healthy nerves and the production of red blood cells. Although such antibodies commonly lead to B12 deficiency, Claire’s levels were normal at first.

By 2016, Claire continued to experience stomach pain and nausea, and had begun belching frequently. An endoscopy suggested bile reflux, in which digestive fluid travels back up from the intestine. A medication intended to speed up digestion appeared to help for two years, but it was later withdrawn because of adverse effects. Claire was then moved on to acid-reflux treatment.

“I remembered the anti-parietal antibodies and asked whether they could be causing low stomach acid, but the possibility was dismissed. Nobody joined the pieces together,” she says.

It was not until December last year — after consultations with four more gastroenterologists and almost 20 years since her symptoms first appeared — that Claire finally received diagnoses of autoimmune gastritis and pernicious anaemia. The latter is another autoimmune disease that attacks parietal cells and can reduce levels of intrinsic factor.

Experts estimate that about two million people have vitamin B12 deficiency, which is commonly associated with autoimmune gastritis or pernicious anaemia.

Autoimmune gastritis is more frequently seen in women, “as is true of most autoimmune conditions,” says Dr Jason Dunn, a consultant gastroenterologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Welbeck private clinic, both in London.

‘It’s also more common when you have other autoimmune conditions, such as type 1 diabetes.

‘Your risk also increases with age.’

Unfortunately, as Claire discovered, the vague symptoms mean diagnosis can take a long time, explains Dr Andrew Klein, a consultant anaesthetist at Nuffield Health Cambridge Hospital and Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge – who has a special interest in anaemia and is conducting research into iron deficiency treatment.

Symptoms of autoimmune gastritis and B12 deficiency are subtle, he adds.

‘You start feeling a bit tired, your memory and concentration go a bit, then you start to get tingling and pins and needles in the fingers.

‘Next you get patches of numbness as if you have gloves or socks on – then become unsteady on the feet or finding it difficult to open a jam jar or a door. You can get sore or swollen tongue, sore gums and vision problems.’

With the nerve-related sign, ‘there are lots of different symptoms; in teenagers and young people it’s more anxiety and hallucinations, and in older people it can be memory loss’.

It takes on average five to ten years to get a diagnosis, adds Dr Klein, who also runs Cambridge Iron and B12, a private clinic specialising in looking after patients with B12 and iron deficiency.

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The inaccuracy of B12 blood tests can be a factor.

As Dr Klein explains: ‘If there are any B vitamins in your diet – Marmite, breakfast cereals and oat milk, for instance, all have added B vitamins, as do multivitamins and other supplements – this can skew the results: they overestimate the levels.’

He says patients must stop taking any B vitamin supplements or eating food with added B vitamins three months before a test.

‘Other more sensitive tests – known as homocysteine and MMA – are available,’ he adds.

Not everyone with autoimmune gastritis will go on to get pernicious anaemia, explains Dr Dunn. ‘If it is very mild and just affected a very small part of the stomach, for example. As well as B12 deficiency, iron deficiency can be associated with autoimmune gastritis.’

It was actually low iron levels that pointed to the real problem for Claire. By November 2024 her regular annual blood test at the GP showed that her B12 was normal, but iron stores (known as ferritin) levels had dropped.

Claire’s symptoms were getting worse, too. ‘In addition to the ongoing tummy pain and nausea, I developed pins and needles, dizziness and numbness in my hands and feet,’ she says.

‘I was becoming quite fatigued and breathless during my afternoon walks with my dog, Harry.

‘I was also coughing, mostly during the night, and had a burning sensation in my feet – and having once been able to do fairly long runs, I could now only run in first gear for short distances.

‘I also had a strange feeling of irritation/anger, which is not like me at all.’

Claire’s husband Kevin, 66, was concerned about the coughing, so she saw her GP who agreed with the previous diagnoses of bile reflux and thought her cough could be due to stomach acid reflux.

‘My concern about the low ferritin and dropping B12 levels was dismissed,’ says Claire. She was prescribed a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), lansoprazole, for the acid reflux for a month, ‘which did nothing, in fact, made me feel worse’.

Last year, after her annual blood test again showed her iron levels were still abnormally low, she saw a fourth gastroenterologist, who gave her a gastroscopy – where a small camera is passed into the stomach via the mouth – and diagnosed chronic gastritis and prescribed more PPIs. This time Claire refused.

‘I told him I had gastric pain not acid reflux – but again my concerns were dismissed,’ she says.

Claire then began researching online and came across the Pernicious Anaemia Society – and discovered her real problem might be autoimmune gastritis.

Despite raising this with her GP and a fifth gastroenterologist, she was given yet another colonoscopy and PPIs.

Only when she received results of further B12 and iron tests – which showed both had fallen – was she seen by a sixth gastroenterologist, who specialised in iron deficiency anaemia and confirmed the correct diagnosis: autoimmune gastritis and pernicious anaemia.

Claire recalls: ‘She was wonderful – she didn’t fob me off, didn’t try to make me take more PPIs. She looked at my history and gave me the diagnosis.’

After just two weeks of treatment with vitamin B12 injections, the dizziness had gone and the fatigue had improved considerably.

It took ‘about a further four months for the numbness in my feet and pins and needles to resolve’. She will need to take the jabs (which she has every two months) for life. She is also now on iron supplements – she’ll be on this regimen for life.

After nearly 20 years of symptoms, Claire knows she’s been lucky.

Dr Klein says: ‘Neurological symptoms can become permanent as the nerves get damaged from the B12 deficiency and it is very often misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, depression, dementia. But if it’s treated early enough it is reversible.’

Claire, now 63, is feeling more optimistic about the future.

‘I feel much better but still feel I am running in first gear and don’t have the energy I did – but I am glad to have a diagnosis.

‘I feel vindicated after years of being fobbed off.’

• pernicious-anaemia-society.org