A HAMPSHIRE woman who has not had a proper meal in almost a decade because of a rare stomach condition needs the help of Daily Echo readers. 

Natalie Wallis, from Hythe, has spent years living off tomato juice and a feeding tube straight into her bowels after she was diagnosed with gastroparesis, which left her with a paralysed stomach. 

The 31-year-old is desperate to raise £15,000 to pay for an alternative treatment, not available on the NHS.

If she can manage to raise the money, it could give her hope that one day she will be able to sit down and enjoy a Christmas dinner with her family, even if it is liquefied. 

Up until she was 23-years-old, Natalie could eat whatever she wanted.

But after going travelling, she started to suffer from nausea and diarrhoea. She presumed it was a stomach bug but when the symptoms did not subside, doctors performed various tests and put her on different courses of antibiotics, before eventually wrongly diagnosing her with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. 

Natalie decided to put herself on an elimination diet and discovered she had become intolerant to wheat, gluten and dairy.

Presuming it was her diet making her ill, she only ate certain foods until February 2014 when she started being sick opposed to just feeling nauseous. 

“I would be sick up eight or nine times a day,” she said.

“I thought it was something I was eating so tried different foods but nothing would stay down. 

“It was awful, my weight plummeted - I dropped from being about nine stone to six-and-a-half stone.”

During the next seven months Natalie was hospitalised twice before eventually being diagnosed with gastroparesis.

Natalie was told by doctors that they believed she was bitten by something, which led to her developing the rare and incurable disease.

he was also told that had EDS - an overactive bowel and POTS - which causes an abnormal increase in heart rate typically causing dizziness, fainting and other symptoms.

The nerves in Natalie’s stomach have been damaged beyond repair and the only hope of fixing them is by installing a pacemaker which can send the signals she needs to help regulate her stomach. 

“My stomach doesn’t break food down quickly enough and it was building up inside me, making me feel sick,” she said.

Doctors have tried a range of different procedures in a bid to get food into Natalie who could not eat anything orally without being sick. This included trying supplement drinks, being fed through a tube and being fed intravenously.

“Nothing was working, I was either being sick or it was going straight through me,” she added. 

The longest Natalie, who went into hospital again on January 4, has gone without food because of her condition and the problems it causes it six days.

She said: “Not being able to eat is really a bizarre feeling - you get past the point of being hungry. 

“It is very frustrating - it is so hard when you’re that malnourished and feel so weak.

The pacemaker has a 50% success rate but if it works it will allow Natalie to have a more normal life.

“I have always liked cooking Christmas dinner for my family, so to be able to do sit down and eat what everyone else is eating it would be really nice. 

“I would love to get back to work and walk my dogs. I just want to be a normal 31-year-old. It puts so much stress on my life and my relationships with family and friends.”

Visit www.gofundme.com/stomach-pacemaker if you would like to donate to Natalie’s cause and help make her dream come true.