Today, August 8 is Severe ME Awareness Day. 25% of the estimated 250 000 Australians with ME/CFS are bedridden or housebound. This figure skyrockets when you count those living with Fibromyalgia and Long Covid. I have been housebound and often bedbound with severe Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS for 33 years now. Today I share two posts illustrating severe ME/CFS.
This first post is dedicated to the memory of Alison Hunter, a South Australian girl who died of ME/CFS aged 19 in 1996. At the time, I was 16 and I was entirely bedridden, unable to bathe or feed myself for a year. The Alison Hunter Memorial Foundation was formed in her honour, which now funds research by NCNED. At the time I didn’t have access to the internet and I was one of the most severe patients my specialist had seen. Death was very possible. In 2004 I dedicated my book to Alison Hunter, and much of my advocacy over the decades since has been with her in mind.
By @byshi.art ByShi Art by Shiloh Moore on Facebook and Instagram