My Story

About us

My name is Joe, and I'm running a marathon in aid of ME Research.

Our lives changed when my wife Rachel was diagniosed with ME - Myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) - what started off as your typical general tiredenss quickly devloped into something more serious, a condition that effectively means Rachel is bed-bound for the vast majority of her day.

This has had a devasting effect on her mental health and in the early days/months following her diagnosis; tears and the feeling of hoplessness and bouts of 'why me?' were the mainstay. Although these side-effects of her conditon has subsided slightly, they remain ever present - especially when she is experiencing intense pain that prevents her being able to be the mother she wants to be to our two young daughters.

We are slightly more fortunate than most that have been afflicted with this terrible disease as Rachel still had her loving parents close by, but we both know there are people in the country who have little to no support and the feeling of isolation and desperation must be terrible for these people.

I will be running in order to raise monies for the ME Research UK so that this charity can continue their research into ME with the hope of one day ridding this terrible disease from the world. 

Thank you for reading and I will finish below with a direct quote from the ME Research UK website:

The principal aim of ME Research UK is to commission and fund high-quality scientific (biomedical) investigation into the causes, consequences and treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (also known as ME/CFS). This is a debilitating illness which affects between 120,000 and 240,000 people in the UK, but is neither well understood nor, in many cases, properly recognised.