Cornwall woman's bid for life-saving surgery as rare condition means she cannot eat

• Watch Kathy Wardle's report

A woman who weights just three stone because of a rare condition which means she cannot eat is trying to raise money for life-saving surgery in Germany.

Nicolette Baker, from Truro, has a rare heart condition which means she cannot eat solids. The 36-year-old weighs just three stone.

The condition, known as 'SMAS', means an artery linked to her heart has collapsed onto her intestines, limiting what her body is able to digest.

It affects just 0.013% of the population globally, which meant it went undetected throughout Nicolette's childhood.

Nicolette Baker said: "My body is starving and I am struggling to survive on the little nourishment I can get in.

"I am massively underweight and without treatment, I will die as I become weaker and weaker and more organs starve of blood supply."

Though Nicolette now lives near Truro, friends in her childhood home of Porthleven have pledged to help raise the £80,000 needed for Nicolette to have pioneering surgery and aftercare in Germany.

A Go Fund Me page set up by Nicolette has already reached over £69,000.

Nicolette's primary school teacher James Kitto is one of the organisers of a charity auction in Porthleven.

He said: "I went to visit Nicolette last week and that was the first time we'd met up for 25 years, and that was very emotional.

"She was unable to sit down because of the pain, so we really want to do anything we can to make her quality of life better."

Nicolette says a specialist clinic in Germany which specialists in vascular compressions has agreed to perform life-saving surgery on her in February. She said: "Surgery is probably quite risky, but I'm prepared to take any risk. I don't really want to resign to dying, so I'd like to try whatever I can."

If she is able to have the operation as planned, Nicolette says she dreams of having tea with friends, and returning the hospice and charity work she loved before her condition worsened.