Woman afraid of varicose veins begged doctor to amputate her legs despite there been nothing wrong with them
             

A healthy mum was so terrified of developing varicose veins that she begged doctors to cut off her legs - despite there being nothing wrong with them.
Claire Jones has revealed how she pleaded with her GP to refer her for an operation to amputate her legs due to her phobia about the condition.
The 39-year-old mum-of-three was so emotionally affected by venephobia, a fear of veins, that she was suffering numerous panic attacks every day and felt life in a wheelchair would be more bearable.
She said: "It’s impossible to live hiding from your own legs and in the end I just thought I could be a better parent without them triggering anxiety all the time."
Miss Jones, who was denied the request by her GP and is now undergoing therapy, says she believes the phobia stems from a bungled attempt to remove a wobbly tooth when she was just six years old.
The Liverpudlian bank cashier said she vividly remembers seeing the tooth dangle down from her mouth and bursting into tears thinking it was a vein.
From here she would cry and panic whenever she saw veins - particularly the swollen dark blue ones her mother suffered with in her legs.
She said: "I would freeze and cry at the sight of them so my mother always knew to wear trousers so I didn’t get upset.”

        
Many hoped the young girl would grow out of the fear, but tragically it got worse the older she got.
Her fear got so bad that Miss Jones found herself crossing the road to avoid older women who might be suffering from them.
She also tried to do not do anything too strenuous that might bring them out in her own legs.
Her problem reached tipping point when she developed varicose veins in her own legs in 2012, leading the frantic mum to beg her doctor for amputation.
Although she was refused an operation to amputate her legs, the family doctor did agree to surgery to remove the varicose veins, but since then Miss Jones has had two more children, causing more varicose veins to appear.
Despite her fear, the embattled mother is revealing her story to bring support to others with phobias that many find peculiar.
She said: "Women tell me they would love legs like mine but I just cannot see them that way. To me they are just terrifying."
 source:mirroruk