Rare condition has made woman, 58, disown her legs

A Cambridge University educated research scientist is so desperate to live the life of a wheelchair-bound person she is prepared to pay a doctor help her become disabled.

Able to stand: Chloe, 58, pictured out hiking in May this year in Salt Lake City, Utah. She wears leg braces and uses a wheelchair, even though her legs are normal and healthy

Since childhood, Chloe Jennings-White has made several attempts at injuring herself so she can finally climb into her own wheelchair.

In 2010 she even found a doctor overseas willing to help her become disabled by cutting her sciatic and femoral nerves, but she could not afford the £16,000 costs.

I might never be able to afford it, but I know, truly and deeply, I won't regret it if I ever can,' she said, referring to the doctor who might be able to help her become disabled.

can't afford to convert my home for disabled access so I just use the chair as much as I can,' she said.

Chloe Jennings-White pictured hiking with her friend David Allen earlier this year in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she now lives. She is rarely seen out of her wheelchair

She fantasises about having a car crash without hurting anyone else just so she can damage her own legs.

'Any time when I'm driving I sort of conjure up accident scenarios in my mind where I will become paraplegic,' she admitted.

Psychiatrist Dr Mark Malan, who treats Chloe, said: 'The question I often ask is, is it better to have somebody pretending to use a wheelchair, or to commit suicide?

Chloe sitting with her friend Clover and her baby boy Randi (pictured right) back in May at her home in Salt Lake City, Utah. Friends and family worry about her as they know she wants to self harm

Cambridge graduate Chloe outside her workplace, the University of Utah, US. She sometimes has to get out of her chair to walk up stairs or get into a car