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Avril Lavigne talks about having 'the life sucked out of you' as she recovers from Lyme disease

Singer was not diagnosed with the debilitating disease for months

Rose Troup Buchanan
Thursday 02 April 2015 10:48 BST
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Lavigne performing in Seoul at the beginning of last year
Lavigne performing in Seoul at the beginning of last year

Avril Lavigne has spoken about how she felt like she was dying after contracting debilitating Lyme disease.

The singer described how the illness – diagnosed last year after months of unexplained absence from the public sphere – felt “like having all your life sucked out of you.”

Lavigne, who first came to fame with her single ‘Sk8er Boi’, told US People magazine how the disease had confined her to bed for five months, before it was correctly diagnosed shortly after her 30th birthday last year.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection contracted from infected ticks. The disease, caught by approximately 300,000 people in the US each year, can result in hospitalisation and can affect the skin, joints, heart and nervous system.

The ‘pop punk princess’ – as Lavigne was dubbed during her first break of fame in the ‘90s – told the magazine she had no idea where she contracted the disease, believing that it may have been during the period between her Asian and South American world tour last year.

"I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move," she said. "I thought I was dying."

If not treated with antibiotics swiftly, the crippling condition can persist for years.

"There were definitely times I couldn't shower for a full week because I could barely stand," she says. "It felt like having all your life sucked out of you."

Lavigne, currently promoting her latest release, said thanks to the care from her mother and husband, 40-year-old Nickleback singer Chad Kroeger, she is “80 per cent better”.

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