Doctors didn't spot my condition for so long I was left permanently disabled

When Daneka Etchells was 12, her period arrived - and she immediately knew something wasn't right.

Unlike many of her friends, hers were extremely heavy and she experienced excruciating pain.

When she visited the doctor, she was prescribed the pill, but even that didn't make a difference.

After multiple further GP trips with no real solution, Etchells' condition got so bad that she was left with a permanent physical disability.

She told the BBC Access All podcast that what she'd experienced over the last 17 years was "medical gaslighting".

The term refers to a medical professional dismissing or invalidating health worries which can cause patients to doubt their pain and concerns.

What Etchells was experiencing was endometriosis - a painful condition which affects one in 10 women - but by the time doctors found it, it had developed so much that she says it left her with permanent nerve damage.

"It grew so vast and so wide and for so long, on nerves and ligaments that are attached to my legs," she says.

Although doctors removed it, she now lives with a permanent physical disability.

Etchells says she feels her experience of being medically ignored is being reflected in a new stage adaptation of The Secret Garden, which she is performing in.

The disabled-led production touches on the idea that one of the main characters, Colin, was himself medically gaslit.

The original classic was published 115 years ago and follows 10-year-old Mary, who moves to her absent uncle's big, old house, where she finds a locked-up garden and her disabled cousin Colin hidden away.

In the new stage version, Colin advocates for himself and is finally listened to.

The Cumbria-born actress is playing Martha, a maid, in a newly adapted version of The Secret Garden at Theatre Royal Bath

Etchells says her own breakthrough happened when she saw a female GP who put her on medication and referred her to a gynaecologist.

It takes, on average, nine years to get a diagnosis. For Etchells, who is neurodivergent, it was 17.

But by then, she says the damage was already done. The last straw came when Etchells was playing Lucius in Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare's Globe, an iconic London theatre many actors can only dream of performing at.

What should have been a celebratory career moment for Etchells actually made her realise work had become impossible. Soon afterwards, she was forced to take six months off.

"I was using my walking stick pretty much all the time at that point and I could barely get up the stairs", she says.

"I felt so under the weather, so fatigued and in so much pain."

Etchells says she felt "trapped" in her own body and "really immobile", with periods so painful and heavy, and bladder and bowel problems so severe, that she couldn't leave the house for months at a time.

Unable to wait any longer for treatment on the NHS, she saved, borrowed and raised money on GoFundMe for private treatment, even negotiating with the surgeon's secretary for the best deal.

Etchells underwent excision surgery, a procedure to remove the lesions caused by endometriosis, which she says made her feel "lighter".

But she says having been dismissed by doctors for so long has left her with lasting damage and a permanent mobility issue.

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Etchells says she is in constant pain and uses a mobility aid to get around - but she is back on stage.

Not only does the new version of the story echo Etchell's experience of being dismissed as a young adult, it also reflects the experiences of playwright Tom Wentworth, who is behind the production.

Wentworth loved the book as a child. Like the main character, Colin, he spent long stints in bed, but he says the ending did not reflect his reality, so he decided to re-write it.

The original ending sees Colin regain his father's love by being miraculously cured – out of his wheelchair and able to walk and run.

In Wentworth's version, there is no cure for Colin and the children gain the necessary language to speak up for themselves and get what they need.

Tom Wentworth rewrote the classic story to be more reflective of his own experiences

Wentworth, who describes himself as "queer and disabled", has recently had a series of urological problems. He says doctors often attribute his symptoms to his cerebral palsy first, rather than attempting to properly diagnose issues.

"The thing is, disabled people know their bodies incredibly well," he says.