The family of a Halesowen woman who died after a 20-year battle with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is raising awareness about the condition and the difficulties they faced securing support from authorities. Deborah Wells, 68, died on August 2, 2026, after living with the incurable condition, which causes arteries in the lungs to narrow and thicken.
In her memory, the Wells family is raising money for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association UK (PHA UK), the only charity in the UK dedicated to supporting people affected by the condition. The organisation supported Deborah throughout her illness and helped the family by arranging treatments, resources, and funding.
A Family's Struggle for Recognition and Funding
Jodie Rees-Wells, Deborah's daughter, said: “They supported us with everything; they arranged all of mum’s oxygen, and kept trialling different things on her - they were really good with us.”
The condition affects approximately 1 in 20,000 people in the UK, with symptoms including breathlessness, fatigue, and dizziness that overlap with those of other common conditions, leading to delayed diagnosis. Deborah was originally diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension 20 years ago and received little information about the condition or its severity until the family visited Canada in 2018, where she experienced episodes of fainting and vomiting.
After arriving back in the UK, the family went straight to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with an even rarer form of the condition - pulmonary arterial hypertension. In 2019, Deborah was given five years to live following a diagnosis of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, with symptoms of this variant often not showing until the advanced stages.
Fighting for Equipment and Support
The retired beauty therapist also suffered from CREST syndrome, scleroderma, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), blood vessel disease, and heart failure. In 2006, Deborah was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a major operation, which removed the lymph nodes in her left arm.
One of the biggest struggles the family faced as Deborah’s health deteriorated was finding funding, as well as a lack of awareness from local authorities, hospitals, and the ambulance service about the condition. Jodie said: “It’s really hard to get funding; you have to jump through so many hoops to get anything that would help - we’ve had to fight for absolutely everything.
“A lot of organisations don’t understand the disease, like the Department for Work and Pensions; they don’t understand it, so we couldn’t get any funding for her. We would have to go to meeting after meeting to prove she had this condition and how life-limiting it really is. We fought so hard to get all the equipment she needed, and we even had to buy our own stair lift,” Jodie said.
A Final Wish and Lasting Legacy
In May of this year, Deborah became bedbound and was given two months to live by doctors. During her final months, she created a bucket list which included reliving her favourite childhood holiday in Norfolk Broads. While on the family holiday, Deborah’s condition deteriorated and she later died following a seizure.
Jodie said: “My mum always said she wouldn’t wish this condition on her worst enemy. She always wanted to go on holidays and experience things with her family in those last moments, and we didn’t get any help to do that, so we had to do it ourselves.
“She wanted to raise money to help other families have a last holiday or a last memory with them – she would have liked to have helped as many families as possible.”
Deborah was married to her husband, Peter Wells, for 27 years, and had four daughters: Jodie Rees-Wells, Natalie Rees, Sophie Rees-Wells, and Tiffanie Rees-Wells. Deborah’s funeral took place on August 25, and friends and family were asked to donate to the fundraiser in memory of the mum of four.
