Joy’s Story

This ghost of an illness struck me down at the age of 27 after a throat infection. It was supposed to be my fun time with Jit, bringing up our son Aaron aged 3. I battled (and still do) intensely with physical and mental exhaustion which would not go away with sleep or rest and at times was bed ridden for weeks or months. The time stolen from me was instead filled with silent suffering, loneliness and being misunderstood for both myself and Jit. There was no name for this illness let alone a cure in1998!


M.E. is a neurological disease(1) and stands for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis also known as chronic fatigue


My = muscle

Algic = pain

Encephalo = brain

Mye = spinal cord

Itis = inflammation


Symptoms can be multiple and vary from person to person but common symptoms include over exertion, short-term memory loss & concentration difficulties, muscle & nerve pain, muscle weakness, noise & light sensitivity, sleep and temperature disturbance.It is a serious long-term illness and disability. I unfortunately has all these symptoms.


As an ME sufferer, i constantly battle against being misinterpreted or misjudged from close family and friends to total strangers. This is totally understandable because of fluctuation of the illness; one minute they appear fine and then in the next breath they can feel the energy sinking away. This makes then want to go into hibernation and the darkness of the bedroom becomes my best friend. I am fortunate to be surrounded with family and friends who are there for her physically and emotionally, as many are not!

Due to the length of having this illness I also now battles with chronic migraine and fibromyalgia. To this day there still is no cure however the Medical Associations finally believe its a real illness and research is slowly being carried out.


There are 250,000 adults and children with chronic fatigue in the UK with a similar story so we want to start raising money for The M.E association and We would Love your help


Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.