While many were studying from home during the pandemic, University of Wollongong student Coady Gillis was completing her exams from a hospital bed.
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The 21-year-old pre-medicine student suffers from a myriad of rare chronic conditions that have left her in excruciating pain, constantly vomiting, and unable to properly eat for the past five years.
As Coady continued her desperate search for solutions, she decided nothing would stop her from pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor.
"I realised I'll probably have to deal with pain for the rest of my life," she said.
"And I thought 'If that's the case, then I'm still going to go to uni and just try my best'."
Among her many diagnoses, Coady has gastroparesis which means her stomach is fully paralysed and as a result has to be fed through a tube.
She also has Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome, which stops blood from circulating to her abdominal organs, causing debilitating pain, vomiting and exhaustion, and requires weekly fluids through a central line to stabilise her heart and blood pressure due to a condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
It took years to receive these diagnoses, and Coady said she often had to "beg and plead" to medical practitioners to prove she was in pain and that something didn't feel right.
"When you have chronic pain you get to the point where doctors are consistently invalidating you and telling you there's nothing wrong," she said.
"At one point I was so terrified to eat because I was in so much pain ... I was wrongly diagnosed with having an eating disorder or the problem being psychological."
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Coady, who spent most of her second year of university in hospital, has already endured seven surgeries this year, including a pivotal, but horrific operation which allows her to be fed through a tube.
"I had a jejunostomy tube operation," Coady said, "where they cut a massive hole and pull your intestines out and put a tube in, which allows me to feed through my bowels because I can't absorb anything that I eat."
She also suffers from Ehlers Danlos syndrome, which makes treatment more dangerous due to the fragility of connective tissues in her body. But not all hope is lost for the student, as she is now one step closer to receiving specialist life-saving treatment for the rare disease in America.
An online fundraiser was established by her friend Elizabeth Innes, who also has the same rare disease and travelled overseas for the treatment that Coady hopes to receive.
"The way Ehlders Danlos and gastroparesis interact just isn't well understood in Australia," Coady said.
"I connected with my friends doctor in America over telehealth and it's been amazing to have an expert in the space.
"The plan is to now try and get as much diagnostic testing as I can done here ... and secure a surgery date in America."
After being live for only two days, the fundraiser has already attracted thousands of dollars to help cover Coady's medical and travel costs.
She is "blown away" by the generosity of strangers.
"I've been sitting here in tears so many times about it,' Coady said.
The young aspiring doctor is motivated by her journey of navigating a "dismissive" medical system, and hopes to one day help others suffering from rare chronic conditions.
"I got so determined to become a doctor because I never want anyone to go through the journey that I went through," Coady said.
"My goal is to get into medicine and provide a validating experience for all of my patients."