'I was sobbing in A&E on all fours - but doctors said there was nothing they could do'

A mum claims she was on the floor of a in crippling pain and told to go home as "there's nothing we can do" before she was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Emma Taylor was living a busy life a little over a year ago with a demanding job, motherhood, and planning for her upcoming but now the 37 year old finds herself in a very different situation due to endometriosis. She has been forced to drastically reduce her working hours, and walking is so difficult she relies on a cane. Each afternoon she comes home from work and is essentially bedridden for the rest of the day.

In July last year, Emma was diagnosed with endometriosis - a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. She says that despite living in agony, she has had to fight at every turn for her pain to be believed, and is now left not knowing how long she could be waiting for surgery.

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"I don't have a life really anymore compared to what I did," she told the . "I'm in pain every single day." Emma said she had experienced painful periods for many years, but her symptoms became significantly worse around a year ago. She initially consulted her GP, who she claims said her symptoms were 'unlikely to to be endometriosis'.

Emma was sent for several tests, none of which revealed anything concerning. But her pain worsened, and she was forced to take multiple trips to A&E - once visiting three difference emergency wards in just one week.

"I was literally at Tameside Hospital on the floor on all fours in the A&E ward crying my eyes out in excruciating pain and no one acknowledged me, no one offered me pain relief and in the end I got told there's nothing we can do, it's not an emergency, go and see your GP," she said. "It feels like there is nowhere to turn."

In July last year, Emma was finally diagnosed with endometriosis and underwent endometrial ablation surgery. However, she said her symptoms returned four weeks later, worse than before. She said she she now uses morphine to cope with the debilitating pain.

"I've been begging them to do something about my mobility because I've been using a walking stick for a year now," she said. "I'm still so young and I feel like I am going to end up in a wheelchair because there are days my legs just don't work anymore." Emma has been told her scans show her womb is now stuck to her bowel, and she will need further surgery. However, between her and that operation is an agonising waiting list to even be seen by a consultant, which she is concerned could take as long as a year.

"There are women who lose organs because they wait so long," she said. "It is rare, but it is possible I could lose my bowel, and there just doesn't seem to be any rush on it at the moment." Beyond her health, Emma's condition has affected every part of her life. She got married last summer but has been unable to go away with her husband, and has been forced to slash her hours at work, leaving her in a tricky financial situation.

"I spent years going to college and university and training to get to where I am now, and I was hoping to go back to university, and now I can't do that," she said. "I can't do that physically, and I can't do it mentally.

"Even with my own son, I can't take him out to the cinema anymore. I haven't got the energy to do everything that I did before like bake with him or play games. I don't have a life really anymore compared to what I did. I go to work and then I come home and then after I'm pretty much bedridden for the night."

She is speaking out in the hopes of raising awareness of the disease and encouraging other women in similar positions to keep making themselves heard. "One thing I would literally say to anyone else in my situation would be please advocate for yourself," she said. "Don't take no for an answer and you know push as much as you can because you are just a number on a list."

A spokesperson for Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Foundation Trust, who run Tameside Hospital, said: "Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT takes the concerns of our patients very seriously. Whilst we aren't able to comment on the specifics of Emma's experience, it is clear that in some instances we have not met our own high standards, and we would like to apologise to Emma for this."