Interview with Wendy.
Wendy is a 77-year-old woman who suffers from electrosensitivity. She suffers with radiation from the sun but also from mobile phones, smart meters, ‘Anything smart, anything digital, the whole range of modern technology affects me.’
For Wendy, exposure to electromagnetic radiation causes a feeling of horrendous burning, ‘it burns everything, my legs, genitals, eyes, spine, it goes for the places already affected by arthritis. It’s like being burnt alive.’ ‘I get lumps, rashes, hives, headache.’
‘My tongue is the sensor, symptoms are like heart attack, it’s not heart attack it’s that you’re near someone with modern technology. My tongue starts burning and then my feet go numb.’
A crisis in Wendy’s condition came when Devon County Council installed LED street lighting in her road. ‘I call my lounge toxic, it becomes toxic when the lights are on. I couldn’t take what was coming in from the electric field.’
‘It has left me extra sensitive to UVA now. I get 2-3 hours sleep. I’m dreading when the weather gets hotter.’
The local County Council have not been willing to consider a return to the sodium lighting which Wendy was best in. They have listened to her concerns however and tried installing a different LED bulb, but this made Wendy’s symptoms worse:
‘I thought, I can’t do this, it affects my balance, my legs burn. You can’t explain it, it goes to your stomach. It was all consuming, the pain affects every inch of my body, it affects your joints, your muscles, every inch.’
‘I can be like a 100 year old. Take me away from this lighting and I am fine again.’
The County Council have now installed extensive shielding on the street lights closest to Wendy’s house which has helped somewhat.
However, LED lighting and wireless technology is on the increase. ‘I was late home from shopping because I left my stick on the bus. ‘I was waiting at the bus stop when the blue lights went on, I thought, I am going to pass out, the pain, it’s not like anything else, it goes for everything.’ Another time being driven along a motorway she had the symptoms, ‘I thought I was going to collapse. ‘It’s hell on earth.’
I’m an outgoing person but it isolates you. I can’t go to the theatre like I used to, I can’t go anywhere. My family come to me, I can’t go to them.’
‘I am existing, not living. There’s a lack of freedom to roam. It’s totally isolating. When you lose freedom to roam it’s like being in invisible chains. Which you are because the emissions from modern technology are invisible.’