They met and bonded over Facebook – two desperately sick women with extremely rare illnesses glad to find someone with whom they could share their experiences.
Except Ruth Appleby and Catherine Davies were then stunned to find they were in hospital beds next to each other.
Ruth and Catherine both suffer from life changing Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which means they both have to be fed through tubes into their hearts.
Ruth went undiagnosed for years with some doctors thinking some of her symptoms – like easily dislocating joints – were self-inflicted.
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But she realised her Facebook friend was about to become a real one when she spotted her name on a ward admissions list at Cardiff’s University Hospital Wales.
Read the full, original story here: Women with rare genetic illness bond on Facebook – then end up in hospital beds next to one another
