Millions Missing 2018

Today is M.E./CFS/Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

Nearly nine years ago, my life was very suddenly brought to a halt when my body collapsed on me. I remember it like yesterday, I was sat in a meeting and I just knew I had to get out of there as something really bad was about to happen. I got in my car and all of a sudden, I was stuck on the M60 completely unable to function. My brain and body just stopped working, all I could do was pull over and call my husband in a shear moment of shock/panic. From that day onwards, everything I once was stopped being, just like for all the other millions of people with M.E. missing.
There was no more getting on my mountain bike to blast some single tracks, or heading off to do either a Merida, Trailquest or Polaris mountain bike challenge. There was no more packing my climbing rucksack to visit some beautiful crags around the peak district. My daily walks with the kids was suddenly stopped and in truth has still not fully resumed. More importantly, my brain stopped functioning, I couldn’t string a sentence together at times, I had permanent brain fog, which became so overwhelming at times I thought I was losing my mind. I have many a memory of being unable to read to my then two-year old as the sentences were just too complicated for my brain to process. I was forced to bed with dizziness, blurred vision, palpitations, headaches, inability to regulate my body temperature, intense muscle pain, and for many months I suffered with dumping syndrome. Worse still, I was plagued with insomnia due to pain and symptoms.
Regular visits to the doctor and hospital led to no better understanding of this sudden life change. My bloods were absolutely NORMAL, something I now have to explain to my own clients in clinic. The doctors diagnosed me with severe anxiety and depression. Given that only days earlier I had been in one of the best phases of my life, thriving with two beautiful kids I loved and only 4 months away from finishing my honours degree, this made no sense whatsoever.

I remember my attempted walks to walk the depression out of myself, just to find that for weeks after my symptoms were one hundred times worse. It took ten months of unexplained hell before I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. The diagnosis meant very little in terms of support from conventional medicine, to the contrary, I still haven’t received any support nearly nine years later. I knew enough about my body to understand that it could heal, and the last eight years has all been about providing my body with the best possible space to heal. The journey is ongoing and since 2010 I have made it my mission to understand the root cause in order to find the best possible way to support my body back to optimum health. It hasn’t been an easy journey, there has been many ups and downs and new conditions that have manifested along the way. Having said that I am so very grateful that I have been able to improve my health to the point where I could further my studies in Naturopathic Nutrition and now live my life again after years of being housebound and needing a wheelchair.

So much more needs to be done for the MillionsMissing around the world. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Lyme’s Disease and so much more are all seen as invisible illnesses and as a result not enough is being done to find answers and the necessary treatments to support those suffering with these debilitating conditions. Today, there around 17-20 million people worldwide and 250,000 sufferers in the UK alone, which doesn’t differ much from those individuals diagnosed with cancer each year.

For the last six months I have been supporting other people with various health concerns including M.E/CFS/Fibromyalgia and love that my own experiences together with the knowledge gained along the way can now support others in their journey to wellness. There is definitely so many things people with M.E can do to support and improve their health, but sadly none of this is available through conventional medicine. Often people with M.E are unable to work and therefore don’t have the funds to afford private treatment, yet sadly, this is currently one of the few options available to them. Each client with M.E requires a unique and often very individual wellness plan to bring their body back into balance. My own health improvements and those that I now see in my clients is a testament that there is definitely hope out there for people with M.E, providing they get the right support.

M.E Awareness Week

Today, and this week, is all about raising awareness for the millions of people missing around the world, due to suffering with these debilitating conditions. So much more needs to be done to offer the necessary support to sufferers around the world.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.