'I was in hospital with crippling pain — and I was convinced doctors got it wrong'

Paige Hughes, who is from Manchester, spent much of her adult life battling agonising cramps, fatigue and stabbing pains which were repeatedly dismissed as "just bad periods"

A young woman was left fighting for life in hospital after a mystery condition led to her developing sepsis .

Paige Hughes' ruptured appendix left the woman in agony and her state deteriorated so much doctors thought she may have had cancer . However, the woman had for years been experiencing agonising cramps, fatigue and stabbing pains for some time before the episode — only for doctors to dismiss these as symptoms of "bad periods".

Scans eventually identified Paige, now 33, had stage four endometriosis, a severe and often misunderstood condition where tissue similar to the womb's lining grows elsewhere in t