Author Archives: Anna Redshaw

Happiness comes very easily when I’m able to Do. But what’s tricky about that is that I am often not able to Do. And so how does one try to increase their ‘pockets of joy’ when their body is unable to do little more than the essential functions. There’s no crafting, or colouring, or reading,Continue reading “Borrowed happiness”

Let the countdown to Blue Sunday 2023 begin. • What is it? The Sunday closest to M.E. awareness day (12th May) has come to be known as Blue Sunday by the ME/CFS community after I held my first Tea Party For M.E. on that day in May 2013. I’m gearing up to my 11th annualContinue reading “On to the next one! Blue Sunday 2023”

Note to my past self, Your health doesn’t return, but that aside you will have everything you ever dreamed of. Health does not equal happiness; the life that you get to lead in spite of ill-health does. I used to refer to this time of my life as ‘The M.E. Years’. But I realised thatContinue reading “Stuff of dreams”

An exacerbation of symptoms after activity is not a personal failing. It’s merely a fact of life with M.E. Most people feel a tad drained at this time of year. There’s a lot going on, and one can get to the 27th December and want to collapse into a little heap of complete peace andContinue reading ““Ooh did someone overdo it?!””

You’re probably seeing a fair few yearly round-up posts and they can be hard to bear when you feel like life has stagnated just a tad! So I wanted to remind you of what we did together this year. In May, at my annual fundraiser, a neglected group of incredibly sick people raised £30,000 fromContinue reading “Our most successful year yet my friends!”

I haven’t managed to do Christmas cards again. I am, or perhaps more accurately I was, a person who loved the chance to write to my pals at the end of the year and let them know how much their friendship and support has made a difference to me over the past 12 months. It’sContinue reading “Wishing you a contented Christmas”

I’m going to hazard a guess and say that most of you here feel removed from your peers, and that’s without even taking the still-ongoing pandem*c into consideration. Well me too pals. It isn’t something I feel all of the time anymore but I am still have a wobble about how I’m meant to joinContinue reading “On the outskirts”