A woman has spoken about the challenges of living with a disease which causes itching so severe it feels like “little spiders moving around inside your body”. Michelle Williams, 47, from Brighton has primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), a rare autoimmune liver disease in which the immune system attacks and gradually destroys the liver’s bile ducts. If left untreated, bile and toxins may build up, leading to scarring of the liver and eventual liver failure.
The condition is aggressive and non-curable. Michelle first started experiencing symptoms in her late twenties. She said: “I was doing really well at work and travelling all over the UK for my job.
I was really enjoying it. “I started to notice that when the weekends came by, I couldn’t do anything because I was really exhausted. If I had plans made, I would often have to cancel.
” Over three years, Michelle kept returning to her GP but remained undiagnosed. She said: “I was really exhausted and the only energy I could find was for my job, so I was missing out personally. One day I went to the GP and broke down in tears and she said we’ve got to get to the bottom of this.
” Michelle was referred to an endocrinologist who, after running tests, diagnosed her with PBC. She said: “I was diagnosed with a condition I’d never heard about in my early thirties. As everyone does, I looked it up online and Google said my life expectancy was five years – I was completely devastated.
I kept thinking 'why me? What h.