A Scottish woman raised money over social media to pay for an operation to amputate her left leg, which her National Health Service doctors refused to remove.

"I was living with a leg that felt as if it had been wrapped in barbed wire and set on fire," said 21-year old Hope Gordon.  "I know some people will think I've made a mistake.  But unless someone has lived with that kind of pain, it's difficult to understand how it affects your life."

Ms. Gordon suffered from a rare neurological condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) which caused excruciating pain in her left leg for no easily identifiable reason.  Symptoms first appeared when she was 12 years old; by age 16, she couldn't walk with the leg and had to begin using a wheelchair. 

Hope's doctors tried everything else:  Pain killers, spinal blocks, and epidurals included.  But none of the traditional methods could control the pain, which would occur if she put the slightest bit of pressure on the leg.  "I would take pain killers but they couldn't really treat the nerve pain," Gordon said.  "I eventually realized that the only thing I could do to get my life and independence back was to have my leg amputated."

NHS guidelines prohibited her doctors from cutting off the leg, so she set off on the great wide Internet to find a doctor in a private clinic who would, and to raise money to pay the doctor.  To her surprise, she got both.  The Leg was removed at a private clinic and her social media funding campaign raised more than AU$13,000.

"The day after the ­operation, I looked like a new person, free of the nerve pain for the first time in years," she said.  "The prospect of being able to walk again with the help of a prosthetic leg has made the future brighter for me already."