Waiting lists: 'I couldn't go on any more'

Liz McLucas was in excruciating pain for more than two years waiting for a hip replacement.

After surgery in January, the County Down woman is pain-free for the first time in over two years.

But her road to recovery has come at a cost - €12,500 (£10,800) to be precise - with the decision to pay for private surgery almost as agonising as the chronic pain that confined her to bed for much of the past 12 months.

She said: "It was like somebody was just constantly sawing into my hip, groin and then that just completely knocks your mental health.

"I just felt that I couldn't go on any more. I didn't want to be here any more. What was the point because all in front of me all I could see was this waiting list going on and on and on."

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