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I have had fibromyalgia for 20 years, since the birth of my daughter, who also suffers from the condition.    There is still far too little knowledge and awareness of the condition, nor of how debilitating or life-destroying it can be.  

After 20 years, I'm lucky in that I've found a combination of medication, pain management and self-management techniques which allow me to live my life.  But it was not always like this for me.  Like many others, my symptoms were out of control - especially the pain - and my life was an existance of one day blurring into the next.  I didnt have a life. 

I started going to the gym this year, to try and further increase the limited amount of exercise I can manage.   And so was borne the idea of a 'virtual tour of Mainland Orkney'.     My plan is to add up the distance that I cycle/walk/jog on the machines each week from Mon 12th May to Sun 14th Sep 2014 - and then chart that distance as if I was travelling round the edge of the Orkney mainland. 

Why Orkney?  I visited Orkney a few years ago and fell in love with it - and hope to return there either this year or next.   Orkney is my ancestral family home, and it is where my maiden name *Leask* originates from.  So Orkney holds a very special place in my heart. 

May 12th is International Fibromyalgia Day and FMA UK's Fibromyalgia Awareness Week runs from Sat 6th - Sun 14th September.  So the time between the two dates seemed the ideal start and finish point for my *journey*

Please visit www.fmauk.org for further information on fibromyalgia.

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