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24th Sep 2021

‘I owe my life to OnlyFans’ – woman paid for life-saving treatment by selling photos

Steve Hopkins

Rachael Huckle ‘woke up every day thinking I was going to die’ – then she became a star on Only Fans

A woman claims she owes her life to OnlyFans after she used money raised from selling raunchy pictures of herself to fund life-saving treatment.

Rachael Huckle – known online as ‘Ivy Tenebrae’ – signed up to the website after she fell ill with the rare autoimmune disease pemphigus. The condition caused painful blisters to erupt throughout Rachael’s digestive system including mouth, nose, throat, and bowel – making it difficult for her to eat and swallow.

As a result, the 34-year-old dropped to four stone and was initially diagnosed with anorexia as her symptoms stumped doctors for nearly 10 years. Eventually, she was unable to work and lost her job at a legal firm.

Then she found OnlyFans and the response couldn’t have been better.

Rachael, from Wrexham, Wales, now makes around £4,000 a month selling her photos, money she used to pay for private treatment to get to the bottom of her illness.

“I owe my life to OnlyFans – it literally saved me – I’m so grateful to my fans and everything they’ve done for me,” she said.

“I honestly woke up every day thinking I was going to die. The condition left me unable to eat, swallow and several times I woke up unable to breathe.”

“It’s truly changed my life,” she added.

Rachel was first admitted to hospital when she was nine years old after getting persistent kidney infections. She also experienced pain in her throat while eating and difficulty swallowing: “It felt there was something permanently in my throat and it was incredibly painful to swallow.”

She spent the next nine years of her life in hospital, seeing specialists “all over the country” because no one could diagnose her “mystery” illness.

“I was there for all of my teens – I spent Christmas and birthdays in hospitals,” Rachael explained.

Over the years Rachael’s health continued to decline and it affected her everyday life. She experienced severe exhaustion, joint pain, and swelling in her face and tongue that would leave her unable to speak. Rachael was rushed to hospital several times and had to carry around an epi-pen in case her condition was due to an allergy.

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“Some days I couldn’t get out of bed,” Rachael said.

“I constantly had painful blistering and lost so much blood in my stool I needed a transfusion. I lost my job because I was constantly unwell and couldn’t figure out why. I had absolutely no quality of life and I was in so much pain I thought I was going to die.”

Then she heard about OnlyFans, a content subscription service that allows ‘fans’ to buy creators content

“My niche is a cross between modelling and cosplay,” Rachael, who has previously done some modelling, explained.

“I hand make a lot of my own costumes of video games and characters which get a huge following.

“The website has a reputation for being extremely scandalous in nature. However, it’s more than that – it’s a community and a place to meet like-minded people.”

Since starting her page in 2019, Rachael has amassed 300 followers and is in the top three per cent of creators on the platform.

Rachael, who still experiences “flare-ups”, said: “I’m earning more than I could ever have dreamed of for a person in my position.

“There has been huge positivity around the people who have supported me in exchange for the content.

“It’s helped me recover mentally from some very dark places. “People might say I’ll regret sharing provocative pictures in later life but I say I’m grateful for living now. “There is no way I have any regrets – the website and the fans saved my life.”

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