A woman who diagnosed her own illness from a television show after doctors failed to recognise her symptoms is raffling her £750,000 home to raise awareness of the condition.

Debilitating Hughes syndrome plagued Doreen McLaren for eight years before she discovered the cause of her migraines, dizzy spells and aching muscles.

While watching TV documentary City Hospital, the 47-year-old noticed a patient with Hughes syndrome had identical symptoms to her own.

Mrs McLaren's problem had puzzled doctors and at least one had said the symptoms, including memory loss, were in her mind.

When Mrs McLaren was finally tested it was quickly proved she had the condition.

Now recovering, she is staging a daring publicity stunt to make sure doctors do not misdiagnose other sufferers.

Her converted barn in Tillington, near Petworth, is the highly expensive prize in an internet raffle.

Mrs McLaren said: "The injustice of people not knowing about Hughes really angered me. I want someone else to feel exactly the way I did when they discovered there is an answer to all these symptoms."

Dr Graham Hughes, who featured in the City Hospital episode that changed Mrs McLaren's life, first described the syndrome about 20 years ago.

Although still relatively unknown to many GPs, the condition - easily diagnosed by simple blood tests - is thought to affect millions throughout the world.

Also known as antiphospholipid syndrome - or "sticky blood" - it results in an increased tendency towards clots in blood vessels.

Signs and symptoms include headaches, memory loss, recurring miscarriages and seizures.

The condition can lead to deep vein thrombosis or a stroke.

Mrs McLaren said: "Hughes syndrome is such a hotchpotch of symptoms. They started off with little peculiarities.

"I had dizziness. I would stand up and fall down again. My knees and hands would go numb. My right foot used to flop on the floor but only for a few steps and it was hard to hold a steering wheel.

"I used to think it was because I had slept funny or was gripping the wheel too tight.

"Things like this carried on. I'd get really tired but I put it down to working, I'd get lots of migraines which could last for seven days.

"I don't drink but it was like being hung over. I had memory loss and started to think I was going crazy or had Alzheimer's."

Her intensifying symptoms also included painful muscle cramps that could leave her unable to walk.

She said: "The past three years have been a nightmare. It did not help that doctors did not believe me. I'd go to the doctor and be prescribed antidepressants - it was really annoying.

"It was no fun for my husband Mark. I had to take days off work. Mark would have to look after me in the bath.

"It must have been hard watching someone you love go through it. He knew something was wrong."

The relief at finally being correctly diagnosed was a huge boost to Mrs McLaren's morale.

She said: "When they were talking on the TV about the symptoms it was like 'Eureka, my god, they are describing me.' I couldn't believe it. They did the test and sent me to see Dr Hughes."

Former business analyst Mrs McLaren was forced her to quit her job two years ago and is still not fit enough to return to work.

Three months into her treatment, however, she is regaining her strength and channelling it into the raffle.

She hopes to sell 8,500 tickets at £100 each, with £2 from each ticket going to the Hughes Syndrome Foundation.

Mrs McLaren said: "Hopefully all the tickets will be sold, we get back the value of the barn, the foundation get their chunk of cash and everybody's happy.

"If the tickets do not sell we could end up in a caravan. If we only sell 30 tickets we'll have to think about giving the money back and calling it off.

"It's not just about getting money for the foundation, it's about getting it noticed so someone like me is not left sitting there for eight years wondering what's wrong with them."

If all the tickets sell, Mrs McLaren estimates she will get about £700,000 for the barn and be able to pay the costs of running the raffle. They include about £30,000 in stamp duty, £51,000 for automated payment and bank charges, £32,000 for the web site designers and £17,000 for the Hughes Syndrome Foundation and solicitors' fees.

She said: "If we sell all the tickets, we will only be getting back the value we'd have got if we sold the house.

"There will be no estate agents' fees so we are going to be better off but we have quite a lot of expenses to meet.

"If we do not sell the tickets we may have to go through with the raffle because we have not got the sort of money we'd need to return the money and pay the costs."

Peter Hayton, editor of City Hospital, due to air again in April, said: "City Hospital has been very effective in raising awareness of many conditions and Hughes is one example."

For more information on how to take part, visit www.barnfree.net