Health: One Of Britain’s Richest Families ALL Diagnosed With Lyme Disease

Family illness: Phones 4u founder John Caudwell with his two daughters Rhiannon (right) and Rebecca (left)

He is one of the richest men in Britain, but Phones 4u founder John Caudwell is facing the crushing reality that money can’t buy you everything, especially when it comes to health matters.

Just days after announcing that his 20-year-old son Rufus, an aspiring musician, was diagnosed with the potentially fatal Lyme disease, the high-profile billionaire has also sadly revealed that he has also been diagnosed with the ‘insidious’ infection, along with three more family members.

‘It’s completely devastating. I have no idea how it’s happened to my family,’ John, 62, said.

‘When I heard my son had Lyme disease, it was after nine years of his suffering — with no symptoms that were obviously Lyme disease. It mimics other illnesses, ’ he said.

Rufus, who tested positive in February this year, had previously been diagnosed with mental health problems including panic attacks and agoraphobia, which John says were, in fact, symptoms of Lyme disease.

Rufus’s mother is John’s first wife, Kathryn McFarlane, whom he divorced in 2001 and with whom he also has two daughters — Rebekah, 35, and Rhiannon, 27. All three have now tested positive as well.

‘It suggests it could be congenital or transmitted person to person,’ John says of the disease, which is widely believed to be spread by infected ticks.

John is only now disclosing their diagnoses, all of which were made in the past two months following Rufus’s, as he initially wanted to protect their privacy.

‘I just saw these as a couple of private illnesses that we’d got to deal with. But then when more of the family got diagnosed, I started looking into it. It could be affecting millions in Britain, it could be an epidemic.’

John, who lives in Shropshire, admits he’s lucky he can afford treatment. ‘The NHS isn’t doing enough. A lot of sufferers are selling their worldly goods to have private treatment. My heart bleeds for them.’

He adds that taking care of his son, who is bed-ridden, has been difficult. ‘With Rufus, it’s so far advanced that we’re fighting every minute of the day. I haven’t got a life.’