A FAMILY are trying to raise £60,000 to pay for medical treatment which could help improve the health of a mum desperate to watch her daughter grow up.

Claire Diss, 34, of Hamlet Road, Chelmsford,is undergoing specialist treatment for a form of Lyme disease in Washington DC, which could cost more than £60,000.

After more than a year of tests and different diagnoses, including meningitis, in November last year Mrs Diss was diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease called ALS and given a life expectancy of two to five years.

After undertaking independent research into her condition, blood tests were sent to labs in Germany and the results suggested the initial cause of Mrs Diss’s health problems was a strain of Lyme disease, which the family say is not tested for in the UK, and which they believe triggered her other health problems.

Mrs Diss, who is married to Colin, 33, and has a two-year-old daughter, Emilie, has now also been diagnosed by a Lyme disease specialist in the United States with advanced chronic Lyme neuroborreliosis.

Her family are now raising money to pay for specialist medical treatment in Washington, which they hope could halt the progression of the Lyme disease and the ALS.

Her sister, Laura Butler, said: “We’ve been told there isn’t any treatment available on the NHS or privately in the UK, so we’re raising money to pay for her treatment in Washington.

"It’s been really good for us all to have a focus, Claire was getting quite low, but this has given us hope.

“We’ve been a bit overwhelmed, in two days we raised £14,000. We are completely overwhelmed by the support and generosity.”

A fundraising pamper and shopping evening takes place on Saturday at the Premier Suite at Essex County Cricket Club, in New Writtle Street, Chelmsford, and the family plan to hold an event every month.

Mrs Butler, 32, of Hadfield Drive, Chelmsford, added: “This could happen to anyone and it’s all about helping a mum be able to watch her daughter grow up.

“No one wants to die at such a young age, but when you are a young mum it’s more than that, it’s about a little girl being able to have her mummy.”

Saturday’s event is between 6.30pm and 9.30pm, or you can donate at gogetfunding.com/support-for-claires-battle-mndlyme-disease/