A newlywed has revealed how her constant itching ended up being a sign of an incurable liver disease.
Flo Moffat-Charles, of Kendal in Cumbria, began to feel sick two months after she married her husband, Josh.
The 29-year-old suffered extreme fatigue and nausea, as well as chronic itchiness affecting her hands and feet.
While she underwent months of tests, the couple decided to cancel their ‘dream’ honeymoon to South America, which they quit their jobs for, losing their £1,500 deposit.
Mrs Moffat-Charles was eventually diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PCS) – a rare liver disease which has no cure.
Flo Moffat-Charles, 29, (right) from Kendal Cumbria, began to feel sick two months after she married her husband, Josh, 29 (left)
Flo takes 13 medications a day to keep her symptoms under control and uses ice packs on her feet to ease the intense itchiness
Mrs Moffat-Charles, who works as a fundraiser, was also diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis — caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking healthy liver cells.
She takes 13 medications a day to keep her symptoms under control and uses ice packs on her feet to ease the intense itchiness.
‘For a period of time it was really scary to think about anything long-term because it suddenly felt like so many decisions were out of our hands,’ she said.
‘At the time it was all-consuming. It was what we thought about every day.
‘My feet, my hands and my legs felt like they were on fire.’
PCS is a rare chronic liver disease that causes bile ducts inside and outside the liver to progressively decrease in size due to inflammation and scarring, the British Liver Trust says.
Although the disease can occur alone, it is often associated with inflammatory diseases of the colon, especially chronic ulcerative colitis.
There could be as many as 10,500 people living with PSC in the UK but estimates vary, according to the charity PCS Support.
Scientists don’t fully know what causes the disease.
Mrs Moffat-Charles’s husband Josh, also 29,, a partnerships manager in the events industry, said he feels ‘helpless’.
He said: ‘The itching is almost like ants on your skin that you can’t get rid of.
‘It’s quite an intense feeling that you can’t really relieve.’
The newlyweds, who tied the knot in September 2023, were looking forward to their honeymoon trip when Flo started to have symptoms.
Mr Moffat-Charles said: ‘We’d booked a one-way ticket and had planned to travel for at least four months around Peru, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
‘We’d saved up the money over the last few years and both left our jobs in anticipation of the trip.’
But in November 2023, Mrs Moffat-Charles started to get itching in her hands and feet, nausea, constant fatigue and jaundice.
Her husband said: ‘She was sleeping with ice-packs on her feet. Taking cold baths in the middle of the night in an attempt to ease some of her horrid symptoms.’
However, Mrs Moffat-Charles wasn’t diagnosed until January after she had several blood tests, an MRI scan, an ultrasound and a biopsy.
Her condition is progressive and currently has no cure, leaving her to struggle with the symptoms including medication-induced insomnia.
She said: ‘The itching comes and goes but it’s nowhere near what it was before. It’s now kind of this acceptable level of basic itchiness.’
Now back in full-time work the couple are trying to ‘seize the day’ following the life-changing diagnosis.
Mrs Moffat-Charles said: ‘Things do still feel quite fresh.
The newlywed admitted receiving a diagnosis of a life-long illness was not something she anticipated for at the start of her marriage
To help raise awareness of primary sclerosing cholangitis Josh is planning on running the London Marathon in April
‘We’re still in the process of doctors doing blood tests to make sure that they’re happy with how my body’s responding to medication.
‘But once I feel like we’re in a routine with that we’re going to be doing as much as we possibly can and utilising every day of annual leave.
‘It’s just like a reminder every day that you’ve got to make the most of things.’
But the newlywed admitted receiving a diagnosis of a life-long illness was not something she anticipated for at the start of her marriage.
‘When you get married and take the vows ‘in sickness and in health’, you don’t expect to have that put to the test quite so quickly,’ she said.
‘It’s been a difficult few months, but Josh has made me smile and laugh through it all.
‘I know it’s been so tough for him to watch me going through this and to feel so helpless.
‘He stayed up every single night that I couldn’t sleep due to the itching – fetching me cold towels to lay over my body in an attempt to soothe it,’ she added.
To help raise awareness of primary sclerosing cholangitis Mr Moffat-Charles is planning on running the London Marathon in April.
He has set up a Just Giving page to raise money for the charity PSC Support – one of the few organisations providing patient support for the disease.
