A single mother whose spine is slowly collapsing on itself has revealed she has less than two weeks to raise funds for a life-saving operation in the US

A single mother whose spine is slowly collapsing on itself has revealed she has less than two weeks to raise funds for a life-saving operation in the US. 

Samantha Smith, 32, of Greater Manchester, suffers from a rare genetic condition that affects her tissue and a secondary illness that has left her neck too weak to support her head.

The trained psychotherapist, ประกันชั้น1 who is mother to Jensen, 10, and Brooke, eight, has been left in pain and struggling to walk – and her condition is fast deteriorating. 

‘I am in constant pain in my neck, head and spine and week in, week out my neurological damage is becoming harder to ignore,’ she said.

With no treatment available on the NHS, Samantha has undergone three operations but none have been successful. 

Now she has one last-ditch operation scheduled at an Arizona hospital for 25 January. She has raised almost £180,000 of the £250,000 needed to pay for the procedure and has set-up a campaign for the remainder. 

Without the operation, Samantha said, she will ‘definitely die’. 

‘It was booked tentatively in December as my last chance,’ said Samantha.’If I miss this surgery, I don’t have any more options left.’ 

She explained her children are desperate for answers that she simply cannot give. 

‘They’ve asked a lot of questions, things like whether I’m going to die, if it’s our last Christmas and where will they live if things go wrong,’ she said. 

‘I’m trying to be as positive with them – but I’ve also got to be realistic.’ 

Samantha was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS-Type1) in January 2017 when neurosurgeons discovered the weight of her skull was causing her spine to collapse due to tissue weakness.