![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767216192_690_0_um-who-fell-asleep-for-whole-of-sons-birthday-party-diagnosed-with-rare-condition.jpg\")
Holly McGougan(Image: Holly McGougan \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n“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.”<\/p>\n
09:34, 28 Dec 2025Updated 17:27, 31 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
Holly McGougan(Image: Holly McGougan \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n
A Scots mum was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening condition after she became so sleepy she would drift off for 24 hours straight. Holly McGougan, 31, has struggled with her health throughout her life.<\/a><\/p>\n Her struggles<\/a> started when she got pneumonia at 16, and has since contracted shingles seven times since the age of 24. She spent years in and out of the doctors, but was misdiagnosed as having anxiety, depression and fibromyalgia.<\/p>\n Last year Holly’s condition worsened dramatically, and she began to suffer with severe migraines, weight loss, extreme fatigue, brain fog, and low blood pressure. She became constantly exhausted and would sometimes stay asleep for 24 hours straight.<\/a><\/p>\n After fighting for years to get a diagnosis<\/a>, she was finally diagnosed with 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 hormonal deficiency 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.<\/p>\n Following the diagnosis, the mum of two, who now has to take steroids<\/a> three times a day for the rest of her life, said she feels relieved. However, she is also worried she won’t get to see her sons Theo, 8, and Zach, 6, grow up.<\/p>\n Holly, a content creator, from Paisley, 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.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n “I bumped my car in the doctor’s car park, and last November. The doctors kept ignoring me, but I continued to fight.<\/p>\n “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”.<\/p>\n As the mum of two is sober, regularly exercises<\/a> and eats a very healthy diet, she couldn’t understand why she constantly felt exhausted, and her body was in severe pain. Over the past year, her symptoms intensified, and she began falling asleep with food in her mouth, leaving her unable to care for her two young boys.<\/p>\n After going back and forth for months, Holly was finally diagnosed with Addison’s<\/a> in September 2025, and now has to take hydrocortisone tablets three times a day, for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n “The nurse said I’d burned myself out so much from looking after everybody else, that I was like a phone on 2%”, she said. “They measured my cortisol levels, and they were at 30, whereas a normal person is at 250. So basically, I was dying.”<\/p>\n Some days, Holly is so exhausted<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Holly also has to carry a hypercortisol injection<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n “My body goes into shutdown mode, it just can’t handle it”, she said.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite her diagnosis<\/a>, the mum tries to stay positive and is living life to the fullest in Thailand.<\/p>\n “I feel angry and let down that I wasn’t listened to for so long, but I won’t let this beat me”, she said.<\/p>\n Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!<\/p>\n Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.<\/p>\n You’ll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.<\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.<\/p>\n![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767216193_72_0_um-who-fell-asleep-for-whole-of-sons-birthday-party-diagnosed-with-rare-condition.jpg\")
Holly and Craig McGougan with kids Theo and Zach(Image: Holly McGougan \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n![\"She](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767216194_98_0_um-who-fell-asleep-for-whole-of-sons-birthday-party-diagnosed-with-rare-condition.jpg\")
She was diagnosed with a rare life-threatening condition (Image: Courtesy Holly McGougan)<\/p>\n![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767216195_318_0_um-who-fell-asleep-for-whole-of-sons-birthday-party-diagnosed-with-rare-condition.jpg\")
Holly and Craig McGougan.(Image: Holly McGougan \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n