A bride-to-be identified as Kaiva Locmele has called off her wedding to truck driver fiancé, Arthur Picacelma, 35, over a rare medical condition that makes her feel she was ‘drowning’.

UK Metro reports that Locmele has over 10 years of debilitating symptoms ranging from dizziness and vertigo to passing out and unsuccessful treatment for fluid in the brain, forcing her to cancel the wedding in June 2020 due to severe pains.

She has finally decided to look to the USA for answers with hopes that life-changing treatment will mean she can finally get married.

Kaiva was given a diagnosis of craniocervical instability – which involves excessive movement between the skull and the two top vertebrae and can injure the spinal cord, brain stem, vertebral artery or vagus nerve – by the Caring Medical facility in Florida. Now she is fundraising for ‘miracle’ treatment there.

“The most upsetting thing of all was not being able to marry the love of my life,’ says Kaiva, who is from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

“We had planned to tie the knot in June 2020, but by February, my condition had deteriorated and I just wasn’t well enough.

“It’s heartbreaking and, while I’m trying to stay positive, my condition means I can barely move.”

Kaiva has suffered with dizziness for as long as she can remember, and by April 2011 it was accompanied by fatigue and severe vertigo, but doctors could not find out what was wrong.

“I started to feel fatigued and lightheaded in April 2011,” she says.

“I had no energy and was exhausted. I went to the doctors who said I was stressed and overworked. I had a physically tough job as an Amazon packer. But despite some time off, I still felt the same.

“All my test results were normal. So doctors felt it was psychological and that I was depressed.

“I didn’t feel unhappy, but with no other explanation I quit my job at Amazon and worked hard to improve my mental health.’

Meeting Arthur through mutual friends in 2013, romance blossomed and in 2014 he proposed on a romantic walk by Rutland Water, a giant reservoir in the East Midlands.

But Kaiva’s condition threatened to overwhelm her happiness.

“I went back and forth to the doctors, but they couldn’t find anything wrong,” she says.

‘By 2018, my airways would feel blocked with liquid, it felt like I was drowning. Some days I could barely lift my head. I was constantly dizzy.#

Kaiva took up meditation, changed jobs multiple times, and even completed the Camino de Santiago trail – a kind of pilgrims’ way – in Spain, in April 2018, hoping for spiritual answers to her life-limiting condition.

“I tried my best to get better, as I wanted to be healthy,’ she says. ‘I walked for six weeks, it was really hard, but I thought that I was going to find myself and feel better. Sadly, though, nothing changed.

“I tried to find a job I was passionate about. I always wanted to work in an office, so in August 2019 I started as a payroll clerk for a recruitment company.

“I loved it, but the hour long commute triggered my condition. I started passing out in the car.

“It was really scary, there were a lot of near accidents. So, after three months, I had to leave.”

Kaiva was admitted for further scans at Peterborough City Hospital in October 2019, revealing a build-up of fluid on her brain – which effectively cancelled her wedding plans.

“It was devastating,” Kaiva says.