A mum says showering and having sex is extremely painful due to a rare condition which has left her with painful tumours all over her body - inside and out. Rachel Potter, 34, has thousands of non-cancerous tumours due to an illness called neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The painful lumps - some as big as a 50p coin - can appear without warning and the mum-of-one has to take up to seven pain medications each day.
Rachel has the benign tumours all over her back, on her head and face, and in her brain and says it's painful even to lie down and sleep. Rachel - who is unable to work due to her condition - from Belfast, Northern Ireland, said: "It's an extremely painful condition - the bumps are very sore. The tumours can appear anywhere.
It can be difficult and embarrassing when they're on your face. I avoid going out because of the things people say. "They just appear out of nowhere - sometimes I feel an itch for a couple of days before and sometimes not.
I have thousands of them just on my back. It's very uncomfortable - it's like a stabbing pain all over. I rarely get much sleep.
"And I have a 60 per cent chance of getting cancer because of it - that's very scary." NF1 is caused by a gene mutation and affects 25,000 people in the UK, according to Nerve Tumours UK. The tumours, usually non-cancerous, grow all along the nerve pathways.
Rachel has them all along her spinal cord, and in all her organs - ranging in size from a pin head to a 50p or large peanut, she says. She was di.
