The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats has revealed her Crohn’s disease once left her just four days from death.
Daisy Cooper told her party’s conference in Brighton the illness had left her weighing just seven stone by the time she was rushed to hospital 12 years ago.
She recalled doctors telling her she may never be able to work again even after undergoing major surgery – but said the NHS ultimately ‘gave me my life back’.
It was the first time she had spoken publicly about how serious her condition had got in the past.
On a stage at the Brighton Centre, she said: ‘A few weeks in, I was told that without major surgery, I had just four days left to live.
‘My weight had dropped to around 7 stone. My eyesight was failing. My heart rate had plummeted. And my arms were black and blue.
‘I was fed only through a feeding tube.’
Cooper said the news that she would likely not be able to work for the rest of her life hit her harder than the prospect of major surgery.
What is Crohn’s disease?
Crohn’s disease is a condition where part of the digestive system becomes inflamed.
There is no cure, and people with Crohn’s disease generally have it for their entire lives.
Symptoms include diarrhoea, stomach aches and cramps, fatigue and weight loss.
Daisy Cooper has previously described it in the House of Commons as a ‘hidden disability’ which could make work in parliament challenging.
She said: ‘I lay in my bed and sobbed. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed for 17 hours straight. I felt like my world had fallen apart.
‘As a campaigner, I’ve always found my meaning and purpose in my work: the causes I believe in, the injustices I want to fight, the people I work with. All of it, potentially gone. Snatched away.’
The Lib Dem had previously spoken out about living with Crohn’s in parliament and has supported charities including Crohn’s & Colitis UK.
But she chose to reveal the startling depth of her illness – seven years before she was elected as an MP and eight years before becoming deputy leader – to highlight the work of the NHS as the party aims to place it at the centre of its work in the Commons.
Cooper told the conference: ‘As liberals, we don’t blindly defend the NHS as an institution.
‘We defend it because it’s the manifestation of an idea – a liberal idea – that our NHS should be free at the point of use, and based on need not ability to pay.’
Leader Sir Ed Davey is also set to put the health service at the heart of his speech on the final day of the conference tomorrow.
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