A nurse who suffers from a debilitating condition affecting one in 10 women says she spent eight years feeling 'mad, isolated and lonely' before finally getting her diagnosis.

Now she is speaking out in the hope of helping others with endometriosis in Kent gain early treatment - something she says is often a fight as the condition is dismissed as a heavy period.

Endometriosis is a condition where cells similar to the ones in the lining of a woman's womb occur elsewhere in the body.

Each month these cells react in the same way to those in the womb, building up and then breaking down and bleeding.

Unlike the cells in the womb that leave the body as a period, this blood has no way to escape.

It is a chronic and often debilitating condition that can lead to infertility, fatigue and bowel and bladder problems.

Astonishingly around 1.5 million women in the UK are thought to be living with the condition, though many will not have been properly diagnosed.

There is currently no cure, but there are treatments that can help, including surgery to remove the unwanted tissues in severe cases.

According to Endometriosis UK, the charity set up to support sufferers, it takes an average of eight years for the condition to be diagnosed after a sufferer first reports to her GP.

This is party because the symptoms can be similar to those of many other illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, and partly because there is often an assumption that the patient is just suffering a "heavy period."

Nickie Broadbent is a neo-natal nurse from Sevenoaks.

She said: "I started suffering the symptoms at the age of 15 when my periods started. I was told that endometriosis was a red herring and was not the cause of my pain.

"It was not until I was 24 and in my second year of nurse training that my condition was finally diagnosed."

I'm now 32 and have what they call stage four endometriosis affecting my bowel and urinary system along side my reproductive organs and ligaments.

"I have to self-catheterise due to the damage endometriosis has caused to my organs."

Over the past seven years, Ms Broadbent's life has been a series of hospital visits for intrusive diagnostic surgeries

She is currently awaiting surgery to remove endometrioma cysts.

She said: "I have also been diagnosed with adenomoysis, where endometrial tissue grows into the wall of the uterus, and with fibroids, non-cancerous growths that develop around the womb, as well as severe anaemia due to heavy prolonged bleeding during my cycles.

"I don’t say this seeking sympathy, but as a warning to others to show just how severe and devastating endometriosis can become - it is not just a bad period. It effects me in so many ways every single day of the month."

She urged any girl or woman with symptoms to keep a "pain diary" and to use it to press for treatment.

The main symptoms to watch for are pain in the lower tummy or pelvic pain – usually worse during a period, period pain that stops you doing your normal activities, pain during or after sex, pain when peeing or pooing during a period, feeling sick, constipation, diarrhoea, or blood in your pee during your period.

All the symptoms may also have other causes, but if you are suffering from any of them, you should seek medical advice.

Miss Broadbent is now a support volunteer for Endmometriosis UK.

Along with other sufferers nationally, she is undertaking a "Walk for Endo" this July.

She is planning to walk 8km to represent the eight years it took for her to obtain a diagnosis.

She is seeking sponsors and any money raised will go to the charity Endmometriosis UK.

She said: "The last year my life has been on hold from the awful consequences of the disease.

"But my work as a neonatal nurse in the NHS has taught me never to give up as I've watched my own little patients show so much fight and strength.

"I am doing the Walk for Endo to raise awareness of the condition so no young woman needs to suffer years of thinking they are going mad and feeling alone and isolated."

She said: "It's important that any woman who suffers abnormal pain around their periods goes to their GP - and keeps going for as long as it takes."

Her Just Giving page is here.

For information about Endometriosis UK visit here.

Sufferers can contact Miss Broadbent via her Instagram account or by email

Read more: All the latest news from Sevenoaks