A mum-of-two young boys claimed she had been misdiagnosed for years but was later told she had a rare condition, after she slept for 24 hours straight, missing her son’s birthday party
A mum was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening condition after she became so sleepy she missed her son’s birthday party.
Holly McGougan, 31, had struggled with her health throughout her life, from getting pneumonia at 16, to contracting shingles seven times since the age of 24. The mum spent years in and out of the doctors but her condition worsened dramatically last year.
She started to suffer with severe migraines, weight loss, extreme fatigue, brain fog, and low blood pressure. She also became constantly exhausted and surprisingly even fell asleep through all of her son’s birthday party and would sometimes sleep for 24 hours straight.
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Holly claimed she had been misdiagnosed by doctors for years as having anxiety, depression and fibromyalgia. The mum said she fought to get a diagnosis and was eventually told she had Addison’s disease – a rare condition where the adrenal glands above your kidneys don’t produce enough of the hormone cortisol – in September 2025.
This causes extreme fatigue and lack of energy and leads to a compromised immune system, which can make sufferers more susceptible to conditions such as shingles. Holly, a content creator, from Paisley, Scotland said: “I’d always had trouble with my health, I had pneumonia, when I was 16 and I’ve had shingles seven times since I was 24.
“I knew something was wrong. Then, last year, things got dramatically worse. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, I’d sleep for the entire day, I was slurring my words, I couldn’t gain any weight. I crashed my car in the doctor’s car park, and last November, I fell asleep for the entire of my son’s birthday party. The doctors kept ignoring me, but I continued to fight.”
Following the diagnosis, the mum of two, who now has to take steroids three times a day for the rest of her life, said she feels relieved but is also worried she won’t get to see her sons Theo, eight, and Zach, six, get older. Holy said: “When I got diagnosed, I felt relieved that someone had finally listened to me, but now I know how serious it is, I’m scared I won’t get to see my boys grow up.”
As the mum-of-two is sober, regularly exercises and eats a very healthy diet, she couldn’t understand why she constantly felt exhausted, and her body was in severe pain. She said: “The nurse said I’d burned myself out so much from looking after everybody else, that I was like a phone on 2%. They measured my cortisol levels, and they were at 30, whereas a normal person is at 250. So basically, I was dying.”
Some days, Holly is so exhausted that her husband Craig, 32, has to wake her up, put the tablet in her mouth and then let her go back to sleep again. Craig, who used to work away, now can’t leave Holly’s side, and admitted that when he wakes her up to take her medication, he’s checking to see if she’s still alive.
Holly also has to carry a hypercortisol injection, that she will have to inject herself with if she gets a sickness bug and isn’t able to keep her medication down. She said that the steroids help her to stay awake, but added that when she is on her period her symptoms worsen, completely wiping her out and her “body goes into shutdown mode”.
Holly and her family are currently travelling in Thailand, and Holly said that the sun helps with her aching body. However, she said that she feels “guilty”, when she has to miss out on spending time with her children due to her condition.
Despite her diagnosis, the mum tries to stay positive and is living life to the fullest in Thailand. She added: “I feel angry and let down that I wasn’t listened to for so long, but I won’t let this beat me.”
The mum shares the story of her symptoms and survival on her Instagram and TikTok accounts @hollyandboystravel, and her YouTube channel @Hollyandboys.
