POLITICIANS and campaigners hope to raise awareness of a rare condition for which normal painkillers are largely ineffective.

Trigeminal Neuralgia results in painful facial spasms, compared by sufferers to jolting electric shocks. Things as simple as a gentle breeze can bring on the debilitating attacks

The rare condition affects around 60,000 people in the UK. Sufferers have been known to take their own life rather than suffer from the jolting episodes.

MPs joined campaigners from the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association UK to hear from doctors and patients about their experience of the condition.

Justin Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, said: “TN is a debilitating condition which brings misery to those affected by it. I hope that by lending my support to the campaign and by raising concerns directly with health ministers, we can push for an improvement in awareness for the condition and support for those afflicted by it.”

He was joined by Adrian Hales, local TNA chairman, was also at the reception. Mr Hales has previously raised his concerns about the lack of public awareness of the condition.

There is no known permanent cure for TN. Campaigners say many sufferers undergo unnecessary treatments before they are eventually diagnosed. The condition forces some off work.

Two prominent MPs, Labour’s Jim Fitzpatrick and Andrea Jenkyns, Conservative MP for Morley & Outwood, suffer from TN-related conditions.