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Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.   On Sunday 20th March I will be running my first full marathon!  As the time to run draws closer I’m starting to realise just how far 26miles is, and am finding the prospect of running so far a little daunting!    That said, training is going well and with a little help from my friends, at Gwangju Running Club, I’ve been increasing my long run distances – I’m up to 19 miles.  I am starting to find the increased distances a little tough though, and decided that I needed to find some added inspiration for race day to drive me on past the 20 mile mark to the end.  That inspiration has come in the form of my childhood friend, Amy.     In 1994 we were 15 years old, about to sit our GCSEs, with the world at our feet.  Suddenly for Amy things changed.  She was becoming increasingly ill, I didn’t understand how or why, all I knew was that the girl who had been by my side from before we started school was no longer there.  Initially I’d go to see her at home, but by the time I was heading off to University she was so ill that she was bedbound, in a blacked-out room, and could barely cope with a short “hello”.       Amy has M.E. the most debilitating illnesses I have ever witnessed, and is one of the 25% of sufferers who is severely affected.  The daily symptom of M.E. vary from person to person but include chronic pain in the soft tissue of muscles and joints, cognitive problems, headaches, sleep disturbance, noise intolerance, photophobia, chemical and food intolerance (including prescription medications), fatigue, plus other ongoing life changing symptoms.    Fast forward 16 years, through underage drinking, University, work, travel, seeing friends get married and start families of their own, to today - Amy is still ill and remains house bound.  I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to have your life on hold, hoping that one day you’ll be well enough to lead a “normal” life.    Back in April before I left the UK again I sat with Amy in her garden, it was the first time I’d been home and she’d been well enough to do it in 15 years.  And then, I received a wonderful card from Amy this week, telling me how she’d managed to go out for half an hour in her wheelchair with her mum to the village reservoir, and how the swans had snorted in disgust at their lack of bread!  I couldn’t stop smiling at her excitement when I read the card, it’s such a massive improvement from where she’s been.   If Amy can get to the reservoir, I can get to the 26 mile point!   One of the many tragedies of ME is that although the UK government recognises ME as a neurological illness, has never funded biomedical research into ME. Life is hard enough for the quarter of a million UK citizens living with this chronic, debilitating illness every day, but it is even more heart-breaking knowing that there is so little research going on in the world to try and find the cure that ME sufferers are all so desperate for. ME Research UK, a charity, (also known as MERGE), is the one ray of hope in the UK. The aim of ME Research UK is to fund biomedical research into ME/CFS - to find its cause, to develop effective treatments, and ultimately to discover a cure for this poorly understood illness.   Please help me help support this great cause by giving what you can…….     LINKS: Last year Amy managed to talk to people in the local media about her illness. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leicester/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8497000/8497905.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leicester/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8497000/8497905.stm</a> <a href="http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/ve-confined-room-14-years/article-2644795-detail/article.html">http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/ve-confined-room-14-years/article-2644795-detail/article.html</a>   For more information about severely affected M.E. sufferers <a href="http://www.25megroup.org/index.htm">http://www.25megroup.org/index.htm</a> <a href="http://www.investinme.org/LostVoicesBook/IiME%20Lost%20Voices%20home.htm">http://www.investinme.org/LostVoicesBook/IiME%20Lost%20Voices%20home.htm</a> <a href="http://www.meresearch.org.uk/">http://www.meresearch.org.uk/</a> Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please dig deep and donate now.

Running for ME

Running for ME

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