It was meant to be a simple procedure – the kind thousands of women undergo every year. But shortly after surgery to remove a bothersome varicose vein, Jacqueline McWatt’s legs became hard, swollen and agonisingly painful.
Eventually, walking was almost impossible. She had given birth to two children in two years, and when she repeatedly complained of painfully heavy legs, doctors told her it was the strain of pregnancy and would soon settle down.
‘It was quite a lonely time and I felt isolated and depressed,’ says Jacqueline, now 53, a part-time hairdresser from Bonnybridge in central Scotland.
‘I was trying to cope
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