Hello my name is Phil and as a non typical runner (53 and 15 stone -95Kg for you youngsters :)) this is my annual challenge to raise money for "Invest in ME". My 16 year old daughter Zoe has this debilitating condition called ME (also known as CFS - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and this is my annual charity raising event. You may recall I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London in October last year and am now running the Great North Half Marathon in September to raise money for this under funded charity.
ME is a horrible and poorly understood illness. 250,000 people in the UK have ME and Millions more worldwide and yet we don't know what causes it and there is no cure or effective treatment. 25% are so severely effected that they are house or bed bound.
Sadly my daughter is one of the 25%, her ME came from a flu infection in February 2014 that has never gone away.
Before Zoe got ill she was loving life, she had friends, went to school, had dancing lessons was a Scout and played the flute. She was normal, active and life for this 12 year old was fun. When she got ill she had to give up all her hobbies and drop out of school - she is now home schooled and got GREAT GCSE results (a 9 in History - putting her in the top 2% regionally) and is now undertaking her DOE Gold - this demonstrates her fabulous ability to focus on important aspects of her limited life.
Her symptoms include permanent exhaustion, struggles with nausea, poor concentration and blood circulation issues. She uses a wheelchair because she is so weak and gets headaches that she describes as "her brain squeezing out of her eyeballs" She gets hot and cold flushes and gets regular bouts of dizziness.
Every day she has to plan future energy usage to avoid flare ups but the symptoms are always there. She can't sleep it off and exercise makes it all worse.
Some of you may already know a little about the charity i'm fundraising for but for those of you who don't know here's a little about them.
Invest in ME Research is an independent UK charity finding, funding and facilitating a strategy of biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME or ME/CFS).The charity is run by volunteers - patients or parents of children with ME - with no paid staff. Overheads are kept to a minimum and all funds raised to go to promoting education of, and funding for biomedical research into, ME. Our efforts are focused on setting up a UK Centre of Excellence for ME which will provide proper examinations, diagnosis and in time treatment(s)/cure(s).
Thank you for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page and an enormous thank you to anyone who has donated as every little helps
