'So grateful' TikTok star thanks fans after winning national award

Evie Field, 24 - who posts on social media as Evie Meg and This Trippy Hippie - won the Award of the Year title at the National Social Media Awards.

Tops in British social media

The event recognises talent in social media across the country and Evie lives with conditions including Tourette's, seizures, and PANDAS - Pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder.

She also has late stage Lyme Disease and encephalitis.

16 million followers on TikTok

Evie, from Durham, has 16 million followers on TikTok and her posts, which have had 615 million likes, raise awareness of the health conditions that she has.

The awards were held at the Victoria Embankment London and Evie said: “The vote was a public vote so it meant a lot. It was because of the thousands of my followers that I won the award and I was so grateful.

“Life and health has meant I can’t work a normal 9-5 job and spreading awareness of Lyme disease and Autoimmune Encephalitis has become incredibly important to me.

Speaking up for a community

“I’m proud to be able to speak out for our community.”

Just last year, she told us about her life with Tourette's as well as PANS/PANDAS.

At the time, she had just been diagnosed with auto immune basal ganglia encephalitis.

This means her brain is inflamed which causes all of her symptoms including psychiatric difficulties. She is also diagnosed with multiple infections in her body including Bartonella.

Watch Evie as she describes her life

She spoke about it all in a film with the Sunderland Echo which you can watch here.

In it, she talks openly about her life, Tourette's, seizures, online hate, and the future.

Evie has campaigned to raise awareness of her conditions.

Her social media posts include one where an attack felt as if lightning was coursing through her body, she said. Another severe tic episode left her struggling for breath.

Huge change in just 10 years

Evie's life has completely changed in the last decade.

She was a top gymnast in 2011 and 2012 when she became a British champion but injury ended her hopes of going further.

Paralysed for weeks

Worse was to follow and by the time Evie was 15, she began to suffer mental health issues while she was still at secondary school.

Her tics also started and in 2016, she had her first seizure. Within two years, they were so bad Evie became wheelchair bound.

She was paralysed for six weeks but fought back and used social media to tell her story.

She has also published a book called My Nonidentical Twin which also helps to raise awareness of her conditions.