On this M.E. awareness week I am walking 10km every day to raise funds for M.E. Research UK.

The latest research from Professor Chris Ponting and Gemma Samms at the University of Edinburgh estimates that 404,000 people in the Uk have M.E./C.F.S.(0.6% of children and adults in the UK) and 25% of them are confined to home or bed.

Further research shows that around 50% of the 1.9 million people with Long Covid are also thought to have symptoms that are very similar to M.E., including post exertional malaise, the hallmark symptom of M.E. Therefore, it is estimated that there are 1.35 million people in the UK with M.E.or M.E. like symptoms (Action For M.E. Org.uk)

I am doing this fundraiser in memory of my youngest son, Andrew, who died age 23 and so that research can continue to give hope to those suffering, including family members, from this life limiting illness.

Let me tell you a little about Andrew. He was only 19 when he was first diagnosed with M.E. He was studying genetics at Edinburgh University and living his life to the full. He was a strong athletic young man and a skilled footballer who cycled everywhere in shorts, summer or winter.

Over the next few years the symptoms of muscle pains, constant migraines and debilitating post exertional malaise gradually got worse to the extent that he could no longer manage daily tasks and was forced to come home to be looked after. He was 1 of the 25% of M.E. sufferers who are too ill to leave their home and often their bed. Doctors couldn’t help him. He was so brave for so long but he eventually lost his fight to this terrible illness.

“….doctors do not treat us and science does not study us. How could a disease this common and this devastating have been forgotten by medicine?" Jennifer Brea

Only biomedical research can find the causes of ME/CFS, improve diagnosis and treatment, and, ultimately, arrive at a cure. That’s why research is the focus of M.E. Research UK.

They have awarded 64 full grants and 5 PhD-level awards since 2000 and invested over £3.5million. But research is expensive and becoming more so every day. That’s the challenge they face, and that’s why they need your help.