I met Karen at secondary school 38 years ago. For the last 22 years she's been getting progressively worse with what her doctor has diagnosed as ME. Karen used to live life to the full, she was bubbly and fun - what I would describe as the life and soul of the party and always 'on the go'. A horse riding instructor during the day and a mobile hairdresser in the evening, Karen was a grafter - until she got too ill to do either. Nowadays she's house bound, she can pretty much cope with doing one major thing a week, when i say major that's things like having a bath or getting her hair washed. She has two carers Daniella and Dee, they do everything for her and she is on morphine patches for pain relief. I phone Karen all the time but often she's asleep, when i do get to see her she's exhausted and in pain and because i only get to see her a few times a year i can see how much worse she is getting, what concerns me is not only how physically she is deteriorating, but this illness is mentally zapping the life out of her too.

It breaks my heart to see my funny, vivacious friend literally wasting away. I've found a private clinic, the Breakspear clinic, in Hemel Hempstead that has a doctor that specialises in ME and similar conditions. It costs £3k to get Karen tested and for them to work out a personalised treatment plan. Please help me to help Karen get better. All donations will go directly to the Breakspear Medical Centre.