AFTER being diagnosed with Lyme disease, Chippenham MP Michelle Donelan believes she is lucky to have caught the infection so early – after researching the symptoms and discussing the disease with a constituent who dropped into her surgery.

The 32-year-old believes she was bitten by a tick last week but ignored the resulting rash, until searching the symptoms after she met a local man during her MP’s surgery.

Taking to Facebook on Saturday, Miss Donelan said that she was in Bath’s Royal United Hospital getting treatment and posted ‘thank goodness a local man came into my MP surgery’ who ‘alerted me to the symptoms’, wryly adding ‘appears MP surgeries can help the MP too’.

Speaking on Monday, Miss Donelan said: “I knew that I wasn’t well, I had the rash for a week and it was getting worse but I thought nothing of it.

“On Friday I held my surgery and had a chap come in and he wanted to talk about level of care and Lyme disease.

“I did a bit of research on it and saw the symptoms and that’s how my rash looked.

“I had a bullseye mark half the size of my arm and that’s when I knew what it was.

“I was quite lucky, as if you don’t get it really early it can damage your nerves and can eventually lead to death.”

Miss Donelan was diagnosed with the disease at Bath RUH and is now on three weeks of antibiotics.

Lyme disease is often caused as a result of a tick bite and symptoms can include a rash, fever, headache, feeling tired or more serious effects including muscle pain and memory loss.

Despite being ill, Miss Donelan has no plans to stop working and is determined to remain as active as ever.

“I feel absolutely terrible,” she added.

“I’m suffering from severe tiredness and feeling sick, it’s not just the rash but hopefully the antibiotics will kick in.

“It’s lucky I had the rash though otherwise I wouldn’t have realised that I had been bitten. I’m going to carry on working although I feel like I have been run over by a bus.”