A MUM-OF-THREE who was diagnosed with a nerve condition aged 40 is on a mission to help raise awareness of a disorder which has had a devastating impact on her life.

Alison Wellens, 44, was finally told she had the HNPP disorder, which affects the peripheral nerves, after she had collapsed on the way to work.

Told she had to stop doing her job at a hospital radiology department, Alison also saw youngest daughter Scarlett diagnosed with the disorder at age seven.

HNPP is linked to Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease and with September being CMT Awareness month Alison is pushing for it to be given more public exposure after recently attending a convention about the illness.

Cowley pupil Scarlett, now 11, managed to complete a 1k fundraising run at Sherdley Park.

"I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 40 so went through a lot of my life not knowing why I was so clumsy," said Alison, from Blackbrook.

"I had all the symptoms, but the medical profession kept treating them as individual ailments without putting them all together.

"I played a lot of sports but I was always falling over. I had numbness in my fingers and feet, patches in my legs and balance problems that were always put down to something else such as vertigo or ear infections.

"It was a relief I had a name for what was causing me my problems, but I was angry the diagnosis took so long. I went on strong painkillers but then caught pneumonia and sepsis and ended up in ICU," added Alison, also mum to Liam, 18 and Bailey, 14.

Despite attempts to gain an admin position she is told the illness makes her "too unreliable".

"It's like pins and needles but it doesn't go, it just stays there and sometimes gets worse. I can't really do much and am not that reliable on my feet," she added.

"I have just had another knee operation but it's all very risky because any sort of operation could affect my nerves and any sort of nerve damage.

"I do get a lot of exhaustion, you might walk a few yards and feel like you've walked a marathon."

Alison says finding pain management treatment and physio is difficult because of the specific needs of the condition.

"I'd like to raise awareness about it, not many people know or understand. My daughter has a trolley bag for school because a bag puts pressure on her shoulders and by 4pm she's extremely tired.

"Research is going on but there's not going to be anything in my lifetime. I want to make people more aware because my daughter will be needing lots of support as she gets older."