The hidden price of chronic health conditions: ‘My IBD costs me £5,000 a year’

Living with a chronic illness brings a huge financial cost, as well as a physical one (Picture: Getty/Metro)

Prajakta Jyoti was about to sit her mock GCSEs in 2021 when she was hit by an agonising pelvic pain that saw her rushed to A&E three times.

‘I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t eat, I could barely talk. My mum was more worried than me,’ 20-year-old Prajakta, from Milton Keynes, remembers.

On her third visit, she was rushed into surgery for suspected appendicitis. It emerged that a cyst had burst in her abdomen, and the then-teenager remained in hospital for ten days.

Prajakta, has si...