Canadian woman commits suicide after heartbreaking struggle with Lyme disease

A 22-year-old Canadian woman struggling with a debilitating case of Lyme disease committed suicide “to free herself from the unbearable pain,” her grieving dad said. “It is with the heaviest of hearts (and still in shock) that I share the tragic news that our sweetheart Amelie (22) took her own life this past Sunday,” Alain Champagne, CEO of Le Groupe Maurice in Canada, wrote on LinkedIn earlier this month. “We were witnesses as to how challenging life had become for her in dealing with the evolving Lyme disease symptoms,” the grief-stricken father continued. He explained that his daughter had suffered for years but only recently received the diagnosis in the US in June — after “years of medical errance” in their home city of Quebec. He wrote that “over time and despite the recent treatments, the disease had evolved way beyond the numerous physical symptoms and was now severely impacting her brain.” He said Amelie was so wracked by the tick-borne bacterial infection that “she decided to free herself from the unbearable pain,” Champagne wrote. “Amelie left a long-lasting impression through her engaging and empathetic personality. Despite the struggles of the past few years she persevered through university, kept working at a respite center for handicapped kids, was starting to volunteer at a homeless shelter near our place … and remained ever the vibrant/fun-loving friend and member of our family,” her father said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, and sporadically Borrelia mayonii, is what causes Lyme disease, the most prevalent vector-borne illness in the US. Fever, headaches, exhaustion, and a distinctive skin rash are typical symptoms. Infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the neurological system if it is not treated. If a case is identified, antibiotics can typically be used to treat it successfully. However, because the early symptoms of many different conditions are similar, diagnosis can be challenging. Avril Lavigne, a Canadian pop-rock artist, too had a serious bout of Lyme disease. Lavigne, 37, who received her diagnosis in 2015, claimed that the condition was so terrible that she had "accepted death." “I had accepted death and could feel my body shutting down. I felt like I was drowning. Like I was going under water and I just needed to come up for air. Like I was in a river being pulled in a current. Unable to breathe,” she wrote in an open letter to fans in 2018. The singer has launched a foundation, The Avril Lavigne Foundation, to help fight the disease.