// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
I didn't know I'd been hosting a parasite for years - until the most intense pain of my life
Meredydd Jones thinks he lived with slow-growing cysts for years
A farmer living with slow-growing cysts caused by a tapeworm says he had no idea anything was wrong - until the worst pain of his life.
Meredydd Jones, who is 86 and lives in Trecastle in Powys, was diagnosed with hydatid disease – a rare condition which is a particular risk to sheep farmers.
He thinks he had lived with slow-growing cysts on his lungs for years, before having two operations to remove them in 2018 and 2019.
A pioneering Aberystwyth University research project will track sheepdogs via GPS, aiming is to understand how common the disease is in mid Wales.
Echinococcus granulosus, also called the hydatid worm, causes hydatid disease
Jones remembers the May 2016 night when he went into hospital – he was supposed to go out to a dinner with his wife Eileen, but he stayed at home as he felt unwell.
"I hadn't been able to control the pain, and it was more intense than anything I had before.
"Then about midnight, we had to call the ambulance, and they took me to Nevill Hall. Whatever they gave me there cured the pain. I haven't experienced pain like that before."
Jones was in hospital for 10 days, and says the doctors there suspected he had hydatid cysts immediately.