Saturday is M.E. Awareness day.

It is a day for those with M.E, associated with M.E and/or know of someone with M.E to do something to make others more aware of this illness for the purposes of gaining more research to find out why 0.2% – 0.4% of the population in the UK are disabled with it. Not to mention those who are suffering without a diagnosis and those who are heading for ME and the crash which stops all one’s plans and ambitions and independance for no known reason.

This illness is:
Exhaustion after doing the smallest thing which means:
Having to lie flat in a dark room and in silence after

• a telephone conversation.
• having someone in for a cup of coffee
• after peeling a potato
• after sitting at the computer for 15 minutes or less

The period of rest can be from one hour to 2 or 3 days to years before the individual feels better to do one more simple task before having to collapse again.

The illness may also involve:

• muscle aches and pains
• sleeplessness
• restlessness
• inability to concentrate
• inability to finish a task
• heart palpitations
• food allergies
• inability to think straight
• inability to absorb information
• inability to make a simple decision
• swollen glands
• flu-like feelings
• headaches
• sensitivity to bright lights
• unable to walk
• breaking out into sweats after the slightest effort
• indigestion
• very shallow breathing

The list goes on and is not exclusive.

The irony is with this illness is that most people with ME look fairly well!!

If you know someone with CFS/ME drop them a card (an email is better) to say Hi. They are isolated and lonely sometimes and cannot do anything about it. Do not expect a reply.

And speak about it to others and everyone and get the message across: ‘Approximately 181,827 people in the UK are suffering silently behind closed doors and no-one knows why. Some GPs even now tell patients with this illness that they are malingerers. There are no real treatments or medications to help or cure the symptoms. The symptoms can be so severe you feel like you are dying. Why isn’t the government doing more to understand and help those suffering?’

I think this is a catastrophe about to happen and something needs to be done, now. What would happen to the nation if one in ten people couldn’t work? Well it is about one in every 300 people at the moment and I think getting worse.

Please click on:M.E is real and add your name to the e-petition. Thank you.