Andrew Higgs, 31/08/1965 - 04/12/2015

In June 2005 Andrew was diagnosed with Addison's Disease, a rare, chronic condition resulting from failure of the adrenal glands. The initial diagnosis was only made after Andrew suffered an Addisonian crisis, which is fatal if undiagnosed. Andrew was hospitalised, displaying all the symptoms of Addison's; severe fatigue, loss of weight, increased pigmentation of the skin, low blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, painful muscles and joints. However, once diagnosed, he was able in the first few years to control his illness with steroid medication. A few years later, Andrew went on to develop Diabetes and other secondary illnesses. As one of the functions of the adrenal glands is to produce cortisol, which stimulates the liver to produce blood sugar, the combination of trying to control Addisons (with steroids) and Diabetes (with insulin) was impossible. Andrew's blood sugar would oscillate from dangerously high to dangerously low over the matter of minutes and could not be controlled even in hospital when all food, drink and medicine was monitored. Another very significant consequence of Addison's disease is the body's failure to adapt to stresses, and in these cases the steroid medication needs to be increased to prevent an Addisonian crisis. Therefore, when Andrew went on to develop serious liver and foot problems as further secondary diseases, he started having even more hypos, hypers and Addisonian events. It is most likely that one of those events triggered his cardiac arrest on Friday 4th December.

Addison's Disease is still poorly understood and even less is known about the effect of Addison's with Diabetes. The family request that instead of funeral flowers, anyone wishing to make a donation in memory of Andrew either donate online or to the collection box at the funeral. All donations will go to the Addison's Disease Self-Help Group.

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