A mother from Rotherham has described how her hand and foot turned blue and swollen before she was diagnosed with a little-known neurological condition. Chloe-Marie Gallagher, 33, began experiencing puzzling symptoms in early 2025, including kidney pain, fainting, brain fog and fatigue. Despite multiple hospital visits, doctors could find nothing wrong and sent her home.
Her condition deteriorated until she was rushed to hospital with stroke-like symptoms. 'I suddenly became paralysed down my right side,' she said. 'My hand and foot turned blue and swollen. I was confused and couldn't speak. It was like my body just shut down.' Three days later, a neurologist diagnosed Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), a condition affecting the brain's ability to send and receive signals.
Chloe now lives with tremors, speech difficulties, muscle weakness and non-epileptic seizures. She uses a walking frame or wheelchair and is relearning to walk. 'Every symptom is unpredictable, and that's one of the hardest parts,' she said. As a mother of three, including an autistic 11-year-old, she says her children keep her going.
She is speaking out to raise awareness of FND, which she says is often misunderstood. 'The biggest misconception is that because there's no structural damage to the brain, it isn't real,' she said. 'That couldn't be further from the truth.'
