From Me:

I was diagnosed with M.E. many years back, but was fortunate enough to only have a mild case, and I refused to let it interfere with my life. Unfortunately, M.E. doesn't care about your hopes and dreams, and the more I fought it, the more ill I became, until in 2019 I even had to leave employment as symptoms worsened, and could no longer be held at bay with caffeine and prescription painkillers.

My job, my volunteering activities, my physical hobbies all made up a huge part of my identity, and without them I was very lost. I felt useless and became heavily dependent on my partner for everything from day to day care, to paying the bills. I was fortunate to have such a caring partner, and family and friends who supported me through those dark days - not everyone has that.

But there's no cure for M.E. and it felt like my life was over before I'd even reached 30. I had no independence, and no hope of improvement.

Thankfully, a family member told me about a study they'd read on a drug called LDN; it was only small scale research, but had promising results. After a bit of sleuthing in support groups, I found more anecdotal success stories, and details of how to get a private prescription for it in the UK. long story short, within a year of starting treatment, I was back at work, my mobility scooter was gathering dust and things were looking up.

I'm one of the lucky ones who's found some amount of relief from my condition. But I still have M.E., I still have some hard limits, and I still don't know if the medication is helping my condition or masking it, I don't know how long it will remain effective - there's no long term research. It's a gamble, but worth it to get my life back. It's still not available on the NHS, so it's a regular expense and many people with M.E. can't afford it. Chronic illness sufferers are often bombarded with 'suggestions' for supplements that people claim will heal us, and we're often desperate enough to try anything and everything. We need a tried and tested solution.

I want more people to have a chance to get their lives back like I have, which is why I want to raise money for ME Research UK. There IS treatment out there, there IS a cure, we just need to find it, and make it widely available. Now more than ever - M.E. is often triggered by a viral infection, glandular fever for myself, and COVID-19 has created a whole population of long-covid sufferers (considered to overlap heavily with ME, it's certainly appears unique in some ways, but they both appear to be some kind of post-viral syndrome).

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any donations you make. You're helping to get the #MillionsMissing back to their lives.

From ME research UK:

"....doctors do not treat us and science does not study us. How could a disease this common and this devastating have been forgotten by medicine?" Jennifer Brea

ME Research UK believes that only biomedical research can find the causes of ME/CFS, improve diagnosis and treatment, and, ultimately, arrive at a cure. That’s why research is our focus.

We've awarded 57 grants since 2000 and invested over £2.2million. But research is expensive and becoming more so every day. That’s the challenge we face, and that’s why we need your help.