Person with ME
Mattie

Age 35      (20 years with ME)

At the age of 15 I had a very bad case of Glandular Fever which looking back now I know was the start of my M.E.

I would say that the M.E started off quite moderately. I suffered with feeling as I had with the Glandular Fever, only with worsening symptoms!

Now at 35 I'm 99% bedridden, I am paralysed down the right hand side and in both legs. I am incontinent and have a supapubic catheter fitted through my stomach into my bladder.

Four years ago, I was forced to go into an old people's Nursing home as we didn't have enough room downstairs for me to have a bedroom where I could be hoisted. Therefore my O.T. involved a man from disability grants who agreed to fund the building of an extension in which I have a ceiling track hoist, as I can't transfer myself at all, that takes me from my small bedroom into an en-suite shower room & Closomat toilet.
I spent 2 years in the nursing home while this was being completed where I deteriorated further,
I have between 35-40 symptoms related to M.E including an immune deficiency. Chemical sensitivity disorder, brain fog etc...

I am a member of the 25% M.E group who are the only support group for the one quarter of all M.E sufferers who have severe M.E

Somedays I feel so ill that I want to go to sleep and never wake up !!!