26-year-old woman living with rare disease that's prompted decision to end her life gives heart-wrenching update

Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.

A woman living with a rare disease has given a heartbreaking update about her life.

Annaliese Holland, from Australia has a condition called autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy, which affects heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and urination.

The young woman has suffered with recurrent illnesses throughout her childhood, but it was only once she was an adult that she began to get some answers.

However, due to being diagnosed so late, Annaliese's condition is severe, so much so that she hasn't been able to eat anything for 10 years.

She also experiences nausea and vomiting on a daily basis.

"My stool would back up so much that I would throw it up or drain it out my tummy," she explained to news.com.au.

"I was put on something called Total Parenteral Nutrition or TPN and that's basically a bag of nutrition that's delivered directly into your bloodstream through like, a line in your chest."

Annaliese has since explained her decision to die by assisted suicide, saying it feels like a 'safety blanket' for her.

“For me, I don’t want to have to wake up every day with anxiety about the pain that I know is ahead for me," she said.

"The pain of starving to death when they can’t feed me anymore, or the horror of sepsis. Knowing I can go when the time is right is just a huge relief.

“It’s so weird to be happy about it, but I am so happy and I feel so lucky that I do have this choice. It’s controversial and I haven’t really talked about it properly yet. But it’s so important.”

Annaliese has now shared an update on her life, explaining she's been able to tick one heart-wrenching moment off her 'f**k it list'.

Sharing a video standing with her dad while wearing a wedding dress, Annaliese wrote: "My whole life I told everyone I never wanted to get married.

"Looking back, I think it was a coping mechanism — because deep down, I knew it was never going to be possible for me.

"Watching friends fall in love, get engaged and have babies, (while knowing that future doesn’t exist for me), is a grief I carry in my body every single day.

"A lot of the things on my f@%k it list are life’s 'rites of passage'. One of them was seeing myself in a wedding dress and sharing that moment with my family.

"It was beautiful. It was heartbreaking. And somehow, it was healing too."

Annaliese explained that she hopes the memory always stays with her family, and revealed her next dream.

"I hope this memory stays with my family forever and gives them something joyful to hold onto," she said. "For one day, I wasn’t my illness. I was just a normal 26-year-old who actually felt pretty.

"I’m so grateful I got to tick this off my list. My next dream? Watching a baby being born and holding a brand-new bubba."

You can donate to Annaliese's GoFundMe here.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.