A woman who became unwell following a holiday in Turkey has been left uncertain about how long she has to live. Clare Adams, 45, from Widnes, first noticed her health deteriorating in the summer of 2023 after returning from Marmaris on the Turkish Riviera. What began as a bout of flu soon gave way to months of breathlessness and unexplained symptoms, leaving doctors struggling to understand the cause of her decline. “I went on holiday to Turkey and caught influenza. After coming back, my breathing
was really bad,” Clare explained when speaking to the ECHO. “I couldn’t breathe at all. I couldn’t take two steps without being really breathless. I was getting really bad heart palpitations and just feeling poorly. “I ended up in hospital for a week, where they treated me then for influenza and sent me home. Then I went to the doctors afterwards, who thought I had a long covid.” Another doctor then told Clare he believed she had an issue in the right side of her
heart, but multiple tests and scans didn’t show anything abnormal. Eventually, Clare was diagnosed with an incurable disease called pulmonary arterial hypertension in November 2023. According to the NHS, this condition refers to high blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs. It’s a serious and rare condition that can damage the right side of the heart. Symptoms can include shortness of breath. Influenza does not directly cause pulmonary arterial hypertension, but it can trigger dangerous complications in the lungs. On how she
felt when she heard the news, Clare, who has a partner called Chris, said: “It was more of a relief that I knew what was wrong with me. But the biggest shock was when the doctor told me that I couldn’t have children. I don’t have any children myself. That was the hardest thing to deal with.” However, despite undergoing treatment, Clare’s ill health continued over the next year and a half. She said: “My breathing was getting worse. I was checking my heart rate
and my oxygen levels all the time, they were really low.” By May 2025, Clare was told she had pulmonary veno-occlusive disease (PVOD). PVOD is a rare, life-threatening cause of pulmonary hypertension. Clare was given a life expectancy of a few weeks or months at best, but despite feeling devastated, she vowed to try and live longer. She said: “It was obviously a big shock to the system but I just refused point blank [to accept it]. I thought, I’m not letting you decide when
I die.” After seeing another specialist, Clare was put on a treatment called epoprostenol, a medication that widens blood vessels. She doesn’t know how long she has left to live, but is hoping to get a transplant soon to further prolong her life. Clare said: “We have had very slight improvements over the last 12 months and along with a massive one stone loss, I’m fighting my way to get a double lung transplant. “I am in a wheelchair and on oxygen 24/7, having to
wear a mask, as my body doesn’t hold oxygen at all. I didn’t think I was a strong person, but to get through this last year. I wouldn’t say it’s been like a massive fight, but it’s been a steady fight of continuously just laughing through everything, working on my mindset and watching what I eat.” Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives. To add
Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here. Clare is now drawing on her experiences to write a children’s book called My Auntie . The book explains what it’s like to live with her condition. She is hoping it will raise awareness about what it’s like having a disability. Clare said: “One of my nephews broke his kneecap playing rugby. To keep him occupied, because he couldn’t go to school, I said to him, ‘come on, we’ll write a book together about little things
that we used to do.’ So the first book we wrote was called Auntie Cra Cra and Frankie Go to the Park. “And then he said, ‘why don’t we talk about the way that you look?’ So that’s where my auntie book comes from. It’s really just a book to tell people that even though I look different, I can still do the same things as what a normal auntie can do. “It hits children really hard when people are sick. My nieces and nephews
have never once treated me any differently. They’ve just got on with everything that has been thrown our way. I think the children can teach the adults sometimes.”
Clare Adams, Widnes, Turkey holiday, influenza, Marmaris, pulmonary arterial hypertension, PVOD, pulmonary veno-occlusive disease, epoprostenol, double lung transplant, oxygen 24/7, children’s book My Auntie