​August 8 is Severe M.E. Awareness Day. A day to give a voice to the millions of people around the world who are living in isolation and torment due to the harsh effects of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

25% of people with M.E. are housebound or bedridden. The most severe living in darkness and silence for years... decades even. Neglected, misunderstood, vulnerable and severely disabled, yet they carry on fighting, waiting, hoping. Moment by moment. One day their breakthrough will come. One day they will be believed and helped. 

This day is for them, we speak for them, we shine a light into that darkness and show the world what Severe M.E. is really like. ​

This summer was a season of great change for our family. After little more than a year in our flat, my dad had found us a lovely big house with a garden and we were packing again. Moving house can be quite stressful for the healthiest of people, so it can really be a nightmare for somebody with a severe chronic illness like ME.

We actually loved our flat, it was enough for my sister and I, it ticked most of the boxes when we were house hunting a year ago, but there wasn't room for the parents when they came over, and it was starting to get crowded.

Today marks the end of six months since I got the viral infection that changed my life. That gloriously sunny day in Italy on the first of April 2015. It all happened so quickly and unexpectedly, I was out cycling in the countryside one minute and in bed the next. My body reached a point of weakness and exhaustion that I'd never known before and nothing has been the same since.