From 1st to 14th February 2025, I’m going to be walking the Camino de Santiago - approx 265km from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in aid of ME Association. I’ll be doing this on my own and walking between 15 and 28km a day, through coastal and countryside routes in the tail end of winter, carrying everything I need with me day after day - and over my 26th birthday.

Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with ME/CFS - myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome. Despite its name, it's not 'just' fatigue - symptoms can be debilitating.

With ME, you've got to be three steps ahead of your own body - one wrong move and you can be bed-bound for days. Add that to working a full time job and trying to have a life outside of it, and ME really disrupts your life. The condition is still severely under-researched and there isn't even a known cause, but it's estimated that around 250,000 people across the UK have it. There's currently no cure either, so people with ME/CFS have to learn to live their life whilst managing their symptoms. That's where charities like ME Association come in - they provide invaluable support and advice to help people live their life to the fullest, without compromising their health.

ME Association funds its research through the Ramsay Research Fund, determined to find out more about the causes and genetic links. The Association is also working with the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS to implement the NICE Guideline on ME/CFS, because good healthcare is essential to improving life quality.

ME/CFS is a complex illness with symptoms that cut across severe medical disciplines – genetics, endocrinology, immunology, muscle pathology, and neurology in particular. It’s still really under-funded so I’m hoping to raise £500 to help further their work and help other people who need it.

My Camino de Santiago is going to push me physically and mentally more than ever, but it’s for an amazing cause.

Please donate if you can, every penny counts.

Thanks for reading about my upcoming little adventure - I know it’ll be hard, but I’m really excited to get out there.

Imo 👼

Some more info on ME Association:

Please help us to support people with ME and their families.

ME (Myalgic Encephalopathy), or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, blights the lives of 250,000 people in UK today. The smallest exertion can floor them; their joints and muscles ache unbearably; restful sleep eludes them; and ‘brain fog’ clouds their thinking. It changes lives drastically – disrupting study; making work impossible; and straining family relations to breaking point. Many sufferers cannot leave their homes. There is no known cure.

Please help us to help them.