Basingstoke woman's video goes viral on TikTok

Alexandra Robinson, 31, of Rooksdown, posted the video yesterday (Saturday, May 7) and it has been watched by more than 2 million people in just 24 hours.

In the 2m31s video, she is seen explaining how she changes her tracheostomy tube.

Alexandra, who is called Alli by her loved ones, has a condition called Pierre Robin syndrome.

After the video went viral, Alli has posted another video explaining what her condition and why she had to change her tracheostomy tube.

Alli has revealed she has been using a ‘trachea’ since she was just five weeks old.

“I was born with a condition called Pierre Robin syndrome,” Alli said.

“It means my lower jaw didn't form properly when I was in my mum's tummy. Because of that my upper airway is really small and when I was born my jaw was way far back and I couldn't breathe properly.”

When she was five weeks old, she was taken to emergency care because of breathlessness and since then she has had a tracheostomy tube.

In the viral video, Alli was seen upsizing her 22-size trachea to a 26-size trachea.

It’s not an easy video to watch for the light-hearted as she pulls out her old trachea from her throat and inserts a bigger tube.

Although the video is only 2m31s long, she is explaining that it actually took an hour and 10 minutes to insert the tube fully.

The video has so far been liked by more than 133,000 people, while 1,200 users have commented – most of them admiring Alli’s dare act.

One user commented: “I could never ever [do it]. You are so brave. I cried just watching this, let alone having to do it.”

Another Tiktok user wrote: “You absolute legend. Keep being you and shining a light on things that many people don't know exist.”

A lot of people said the video was painful to watch, but they appreciated her bravery.

One person wrote: “I feel like I held my breath the whole time. Admiration to you.”

Another comment read: “That looks painful. I feel claustrophobic just watching.”

In the following video, she explained she had to upsize the tube because of a condition called carbon dioxide toxicity.

This means she had more carbon dioxide in her blood stream, causing severe headaches.

You can watch the video here:

@littlesilvertube time to upsize my tracheostomy. #fyp #tracheostomy #littlesilvertube #chronicillness ♬ original sound - Alii Robinson

You can follow her on Tiktok at @littlesilvertube.

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