the essential
Bitten by a tick in April 2024, Adeline fights tirelessly against Lyme disease, after an obstacle course of almost ten months, alongside her companion Guilhem. A Leetchi fundraiser has been created to help the couple who are pinning all their hopes on a specialized clinic in Germany.
The air is fresh and the atmosphere peaceful in the Navès countryside, in the heart of winter. This is where Guilhem and Adeline set down their bags in October 2022, to create their Osmia Garden. Where market gardeners aged 31 and 34, trained as ecological engineers, grow seasonal, organic vegetables on living soil. A direct sale to the farm and a growing reputation for the couple appreciated in the village. Everything was going well for them. Until April 2024.
Adeline is bitten by a tick. The beginning of an ordeal which still continues at the start of 2025. Difficult to recognize the Adeline from before: “Dynamic, sparkling, full of life, always positive, hiker”, as her companion describes her. At the time of our meeting, at the beginning of January, the woman, frail, tired and scarred, was having difficulty finding the words to recount the long fight she is waging against Lyme disease.
Pericarditis, tingling, neurological disorders…
The first symptoms quickly appeared. “We found the tick the same day and three days later I had difficulty breathing and I had huge lymph nodes. We suspected there was a link, we went to the emergency room,” rewinds Adeline . “She had a first antibiotic treatment after eight days, but she had an intolerance reaction. There was no other treatment. Afterwards, her condition only got worse” , continues Guilhem,ranging “from pericarditis to severe pain in the head, muscles, tingling, temporary paralysis of the left arm, up to neurological disorders.”
The months pass and visits to the emergency room, hospital stays and consultations with specialists follow one another. Nothing helps. “If she had had three weeks or even a month of antibiotics at the start, we wouldn’t talk about it anymore,” regrets the market gardener. After reading scientific publications and numerous testimonies, the couple found hope in Germany. Direction Augsburg, in a private clinic (Alviasana), specialized in the treatment of Lyme disease. It displays “a remission rate of 90%”. After a blood test, the diagnosis came in December: Adeline was positive.
-“In 2024, I was alone on the farm, which was difficult morally but also financially. If Adeline still can’t join me in the fields, will the farm be able to hold on?”
The treatment protocol has just started and hospitalization is planned for later this year. However, the requested envelope amounts to €31,000 and the market gardeners do not have the means for such a sum. Guilhem created a Leetchi prize pool to find the necessary financing. “In 2024, I was alone on the farm, which was difficult morally but also financially. If Adeline still can’t join me in the fields, will the farm be able to hold on?” asks the farmer.
In this unexpected ordeal, the couple received the support of friends, customers and colleagues, who came to lend them a helping hand on the farm. A first aid welcomed with joy and hope. Determined to heal, Adeline does not lack courage in this fight that she has been waging for almost ten months.
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