Jude Vaughan-Spruce
Disney VoluntEARS Thames Path Walk
Fundraising for Action for M.E.
Story
A group of us who work together in Bromley are going to walk 23 miles along the Thames Path from Kingston to Tower Bridge! We're doing this because we want to raise money for a great charity that helps people with M.E., an illness affecting around 250,000 people in the UK. It causes chronic pain and severe, persistent fatigue but not much is known about the cause of this illness, and people are affected in different ways.
Why did we choose Action for M.E.? Here's the story of one of our VoluntEARS:
Jude's Story
When I was 16, I watched my mum go into hospital for what should have been a routine operation. Unfortunately the operation went wrong and she ended up in intensive care with septicaemia. Over the next few years, my mum - who had been in perfect health prior to the operation - began suffering from major fatigue: she went from suddenly needing a walking stick to walk even short distances, to eventually needing a wheelchair. She also began suffering from fibromyalgia - massive intense pain, usually in her arms and legs. She had to give up her job as a nurse and move to a bungalow where she wouldn't face the daily challenge of trying to climb the stairs.
No two days are the same for my mum, due to the inconstant nature of M.E. Some days she can barely get out of bed and she doesn't even have the energy to talk properly. Her brain goes foggy and she'll forget words, while her short-term memory is also poor. But on other days she can walk around the house as though everything is fine.
Daily life for my mum is now about pacing. She only has a certain amount of energy and she has to be careful how she uses it. On the other hand, there are days when she has paced perfectly but finds the next day she feels as exhausted as if she has run a marathon.
More needs to be done to research into M.E., to find out more about causes and possible cures. Little is known about it and why it affects people differently, and the illness is so diverse that it makes finding any kind of cure incredibly difficult. But by supporting Action for M.E., you will be putting your money towards finding out more about this illness that has changed my mum so drastically over the past decade. We live in hope that one day a cure can be found, but we need your help to get there.
Why did we choose Action for M.E.? Here's the story of one of our VoluntEARS:
Jude's Story
When I was 16, I watched my mum go into hospital for what should have been a routine operation. Unfortunately the operation went wrong and she ended up in intensive care with septicaemia. Over the next few years, my mum - who had been in perfect health prior to the operation - began suffering from major fatigue: she went from suddenly needing a walking stick to walk even short distances, to eventually needing a wheelchair. She also began suffering from fibromyalgia - massive intense pain, usually in her arms and legs. She had to give up her job as a nurse and move to a bungalow where she wouldn't face the daily challenge of trying to climb the stairs.
No two days are the same for my mum, due to the inconstant nature of M.E. Some days she can barely get out of bed and she doesn't even have the energy to talk properly. Her brain goes foggy and she'll forget words, while her short-term memory is also poor. But on other days she can walk around the house as though everything is fine.
Daily life for my mum is now about pacing. She only has a certain amount of energy and she has to be careful how she uses it. On the other hand, there are days when she has paced perfectly but finds the next day she feels as exhausted as if she has run a marathon.
More needs to be done to research into M.E., to find out more about causes and possible cures. Little is known about it and why it affects people differently, and the illness is so diverse that it makes finding any kind of cure incredibly difficult. But by supporting Action for M.E., you will be putting your money towards finding out more about this illness that has changed my mum so drastically over the past decade. We live in hope that one day a cure can be found, but we need your help to get there.