'MY BODY NEARLY STRANGLED ITSELF'

When Hazel Woodward, 42, was left struggling to breathe, the battle was just beginning

- FRANCES LEATE

Holding a test tube in the air and pouring acid into a glass bottle, I started explaining to my Year 11 science class about the next experiment, but I was quickly interrupted. ‘Miss, your whole arm is shaking,’ one of my pupils frowned. She was right, my hand and arm wouldn't keep still, and my heart was thumping so hard in my chest I could feel the vibrations in my ears.

I painted on a smile, but behind the facade I was terrified. So, after that class in 2011, I went to see my doctor. Days later, blood tests revealed I had an overactive thyroid. It meant that the butterfly-shaped gland at the front of my neck was producing too many hormones, affecting my heart rate, body temperature and energy levels. ‘It explains a lot,’ I said to my husband James, then 26, later that night as we tucked into dinner.

SHOCK DIAGNOSIS

As well as work, I was a mum to our baby daughter Jasmine. I'd been feeling exhausted recently, but had put it down to juggling too much. Now I knew the real reason.

I needed daily medication to lower my thyroid levels, and months later things settled down. In December 2012, I gave birth to our son Oliver. Only I soon noticed how I struggled to hold him and get myself up off the sofa at the same time. At first, I blamed my weight, because at 18st and a size 20 I knew I was big. But I was exhausted and breathless too, and then the tremors in my hands and arms returned too. I knew something wasn’t right. Especially when my throat started to hurt, I struggled to catch my breath and my voice became hoarse and a strange swelling appeared right under my chin. ‘What's wrong with me?’ I sobbed to James. I just didn’t feel like myself at all.