“From Coughing Up Blood to a Shocking Eye Warning: The Terrifying Twist in One Woman’s Health Crisis”

Imagine waking up one day to find that your body is staging a coup! This was the reality for Holly Swindells, a Bolton resident who became one of just two people globally to lose an eye due to a rare condition that could have literally caused her eyeball to burst—yes, you read that right! After months laden with discomfort, including a painful, reddened eye and alarming bouts of nosebleeds and coughing up blood, Holly found herself at the mercy of a baffling medical mystery. Despite numerous visits to healthcare professionals, her plight went undiagnosed until a blood test revealed the culprit: granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a rare form of vasculitis wreaking havoc on her body. As her health spiraled to the point of being bedbound, Holly’s struggle against overwhelming pain transformed into a fight for understanding and awareness about this extraordinary condition. In the end, what could have been a harrowing tale of loss elegantly morphed into a journey of resilience—Holly now sports a glittering prosthetic eye and is determined to enlighten others about GPA vasculitis. Curious to know more about her journey? LEARN MORE.

A woman became ‘one of two in the world’ to lose her eye to a rare condition which could have resulted in her eyeball exploding.

Holly Swindells noticed a series of worrying symptoms including her right eye becoming red and painful, while she was also getting nosebleeds and coughing up blood.

With her symptoms getting very worrying she made several trips to see a GP and went to A&E, but they were not able to diagnose what was wrong with her and the pain became so much than she ended up becoming bedbound.

In the end, a blood test revealed she had a rare condition called granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), a rare form of vasculitis, which causes inflammation of blood vessels, including in a person’s eyes.

The Bolton woman, 34, described the pain as being ‘like a red hot poker being stabbed through my head constantly’ and it reached unbearable levels.

After she was diagnosed doctors told Holly her eye could explode if they didn’t remove it. (SWNS)

Holly, a mum-of-two, eventually had to have her right eye removed after doctors told her that the pressure was so much that her eyeball was in danger of bursting.

Her nosebleeds and coughing up blood were also the result of inflammation from GPA.

With her right eye removed before it could explode, Holly now wears a glittery prosthetic in place of it.

She said: “I had no idea what GPA vasculitis was – but I was relieved that I finally knew what was wrong.

“By the time I had my eye removed, I had gone blind on that side anyway – I just wanted it out so the pain would stop. I’ve been having treatments to help with painful inflammation in my joints, but I’m not in remission yet.

“Now I want to raise awareness – a lot of people don’t know about GPA vasculitis. I lost my eye but I’ve come to accept it – and my daughter loves telling everyone about her mummy’s glitter eye.”

She’s now got a glittery prosthetic eye, and says her daughter loves it (SWNS)

The 34-year-old first started getting symptoms in December 2021 and was prescribed steroid eye drops by an optician, though they didn’t help and by February the following year the pain was in her joints and she was bedbound.

She said that at the time it ‘felt like my body was shutting down from the pain’ and things reached the point where she couldn’t take her daughter to school or lift up her infant son.

After several trips to visit doctors she called a specialist eye hospital in March 2022 which is where she got a blood test which led to her GPA vasculitis diagnosis.

The inflammation was detected in her ears, nose, sinuses, kidneys, lungs and eyes, and she was admitted to Salford Royal Hospital where she had plasma exchanges through an artery in her neck along with steroids and chemotherapy treatment.

She’s had regular treatment since then but she still struggles with symptoms, as Holly said she struggles to walk because of her joints and lungs, and has ‘had reoccurrences of my lung haemorrhages too’.

By the time her eye was removed doctors told her she’d been about two weeks away from it popping while still inside her head, and a biopsy had found it was ‘fully of inflammatory tumours’.