Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

 

I am walking 17 miles to fundraise for ME Research Uk. Every year signifies a year since I was diagnosed. 

 

I know now what it's like to endure ME - it is an endurance, it's painful, exhausting and tougher than I can word. I had been ill throughout my childhood but at 12 received my diagnosis - ME. 

at first, I was relieved that it wasn't epilepsy or a brain tumour as had been suspected. Then there was confusion. What was ME? There didn't seem to be one answer. One woman said that I could be ill for ten months or ten years. Or it could always be there. 

 

My life changed until it was unrecognisable. I had seizures, blacked out, suffered paralysis for blocks of time, the physical pain was unbearable and I'd have to lay flat in a dark room, shaking. I was scared, at 12 years old, I had to be fed soft food by my mother who also had to clean me and would take me out briefly in a wheelchair. During this time, she'd have to hold me up, support me as I had seizures - often receiving disapproving looks from old ladies or mothers would pull their children away, as if what I had could be caught. 

 

Over the last seventeen years, I have worked and pushed until I could walk, often on crutches, slowly increasing distance. I have a long way to go before I can reach 'normality' but have been fortunate to get to the stage where I am now. 

 

ME research is important to me as I live in hope of full recovery one day, my wish is that children (and adults) don't have to suffer such a cruel illness, that there is enough information available to prevent prejudice and mistreatment. 

 

I have lost friends who had the most severe form of ME and have friends still enduring the harsh symptoms and have been housebound, bed bound not for months but for years.  I am walking for these people and for those not yet diagnosed. Could you please donate even a pound, whatever you can manage to help me reach my goal?

 

The walking is going to be painful for me, I rely on long term pain relief and muscle relaxants to be able to stand. My aim is to complete the 17 miles during May but depending on health, it may take longer. There is no way I'll manage this in a day. This is the first year I've been able to consider Walk for ME and hope that others can join. 

Thank you for reading my story. Xx

 

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