A good source of information on Lyme Disease in UK is wwww.bada-uk.org (Borrliosis and Associated Disease Awareness UK). FAQ's is a good starting point.
If you think your at risk see your GP.

Having extracted a tick from my leg (inflicted on the Moray Coast) on the 2013 Challenge I then made the mistake of ignoring the persistant red rash which occurred around the site of the bite. Don't ask me why - I must be an idiot as I had read up all the relevant articles and thought I was savvy. Maybe it was because it wasn't the typical bull's eye rash. Anyhow a visit to the Doc some three months later and a subsequent blood test proved positive for Lyme's disease. Now I consider myself a lucky person as I seem to have suffered no ill effects at all, or none that have shown up so far. I guess it could have been more serious. Worth getting it checked out if you are at all worried though I believe a blood test is not always immediately conclusive.

Not a single tick this year!

Sue (a pharmacist) has asked me to post this link to a four page factsheet from Public Health England regarding tick bites.
We were lucky this year - she's prone to picking them up, especially when wearing shorts, and got a couple this year, but I have yet to encounter one in 9 Challenges. Perhaps camping high helps.

Thanks Sue via Martin - I need to conduct more thorough Tick checks in future. Every bug in Knoydart bit me during the first 2 days this year but as these were immediately itchy bites I just enjoyed the pleasure of scratching them raw. % days in though I noticed a 5cm circular red blotch(not a bullseye) under my watch strap. I'll get the results of my blood draw on Friday.

Only picked up three of the little bu..ers this year- my poorest score for many a long Challenge. In recent tests, eight out of ten ticks (that expressed an opion) preferred scrummy, yummy vetta blood to that of common or garden, ordinary Challengers - am I doing something wrong?. On a more serious note surely we would spend half of our lives at the doctors if we responded to just about every tick bite we got which then left some sort of a mark afterwards. Do we actually become immune after numerouse attacks??

cj

Is it possible that some of us have a natural immunity to ticks and if so who and why ? After five Challenges, countless other backpacking trips in Scotland, the Lakes and Wales and lots of orienteering in bracken I've yet to find myself bitten. Not that I'm complaining.
Others seem to be targeted every Challenge.
Is there any science or logic to this ?

Ticks see infrared. Perhaps you've got less 'radiation' of heat than others ?