ME and me

with MS, it is better to concentrate on what you are able to achieve with
relative ease and leave to others those things that will only make matters worse

Shirl

I have put the quote from Shirl above because, although its about MS, it is also very applicable to ME.

Probably most of you know that I have ME. Probably most of you don't know what ME actually is. Please forgive me if I seem to be patronising, but nine times out of ten people think that ME is "just being tired".

When you're ill t's like having the worst flu of your life. Every single cell of your body (no joke) feels like its on fire. If you stand up you're dizzy. If you lie down you feel sick. Your body aches with fatigue, your brain is made of cotton wool. If you can get to sleep you're lucky - and if you do you won't feel any better for it. There is only one thing to do, and that's wait for it to pass.

I am one of the lucky ones. I can study full time, I can work full time (ish), I have an active and (possibly too) busy social life. I have friends and relations who look after me, and almost understand what's going on when I say "sorry, I can't come out, I'm too tired". Because being too tired on a normal day means being dizzy and feeling sick. Being too tired on a bad day means retreating to bed and trying not to think. I often have "brain fog" - not being able to string a sentence together, or getting halfway through a sentence and having to leave it because I can't remember what I was saying. This makes me come across as very stupid, which is incredibly frustrating.

You may be wondering why I'm telling you all this. In September I am running 5k for Action for ME, the national ME charity. I would dearly like to raise a lot of money for this wonderful charity who make life worth living for people who are severly affected by ME. This is another cheeky request for sponsorship. You can sponsor me here:



I will be incredibly grateful for the smallest amount to help me reach my target.

Thank you xx

Race For Life

It's that time of year again... emails coming round asking for sponsorship. People foisting sponsor forms at you when you're least expecting it.

And here I am, blogging about it! I am running the Race For Life for the 5th year running (no pun intended) on 21st July at Regent's Park. My sponsorship link is on the sidebar, or you can click on this link.

Every penny helps! Last year I raised over £400, I'd love to do the same again this year. Wish me luck with the training!!

Amnesty Campaign

I've just seen this on Newsnight (how cool am I, by the way, watching Newsnight on a Friday? I amaze myself with my coolness sometimes...). I thought, as a blogger, and as part of what might be called in geekiness terms an "online community", I should post about it. There is a link here from Amnesty International who are heading up a campaign to free imprisoned bloggers and journalists.

Just thought I'd post! xx

Another busy week...

Well, I didn't die in Newcastle (hoorah!).

Kate and I completed the Race for Life in a slightly less than respectable time, but never mind, at least we did it. I ran 1k, walked 1k, for the whole thing, thus running about 3k of the 5. The course was round Newcastle Racecourse in Gosforth, which we were initially pleased about as we assumed it would be flat... Sadly not, and the ground was really rocky and uneven to boot. At one point we all (all 4,000 of us...) had to cross a "bridge", or at least, a few planks of wood across a stream. Needless to say, this held up the proceedings some what, as you could only get 2 people on the bridge at one time... Anyway, we finished it, and got our medals at the end! Then it was back on the train to London, with a number of tremendously drunk people, one of whom fell asleep whilst clasping a glass of beer, which he proceeded to throw over the woman next to me...

As a consequence of my incredibly busy weekend (I was at Brownie Pack Holiday on the Friday night and Saturday morning), I was ill on Monday andTuesday, which at least gave me a chance to breathe, and sit out and enjoy the sunshine. It's amazing the properties of Vitamin D... But that's probably a blog all of its own. So yesterday I was back at work, still as boring as ever (my brain is atrophying as I type), but hey, its money, and it's only until September!