Former glamour model Jo Guest's life has been turned upside down after a mystery disease destroyed her confidence and left her unable to work for a year.
As a successful glamour model in the 1990s, Jo's life was very lavish; "It was a fun lifestyle. I had a lovely penthouse apartment and went to parties nearly every night," she said.
In 2005 Jo appeared on the Channel 4 reality show Extreme Celebrity Detox where she lived in the Peruvian jungle for a month with spiritual shaman. It was here that she decided to change her lifestyle and relocated from her luxurious London flat to a new flat in Boscombe.
About five months after her move, Jo started getting a bloated feeling in her stomach and her calves started swelling up. She said: "One day I tried to put on my favourite boots and couldn't zip them up - I realised my calves were swollen. I thought maybe it was down to the change in my lifestyle.”
Jo explains: "At first I thought it was just a virus, but it just wouldn't stop. I was getting up and being sick all morning and having to spend the afternoon in bed.”
After many tests and scans, doctors still haven’t managed to diagnose of her problem. Jo now takes a cocktail of pills to control the condition which has caused vomiting, aching limbs and a mysterious swelling in her legs and stomach.
She said: " When you come out of hospital and you're told everything's normal you should be happy but I don't want to be told everything's normal, I just want to be told what's wrong with me."
