When 21-year-old Jessie Slack runs in the London Landmarks Half Marathon on Sunday, 7 April, her best friend Hannah Avery may not be able to run beside her but she will definitely be her biggest supporter, just like Jessie has been hers through an extremely tough period in her life.
After becoming ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) at 13, Hannah has spent much of the last eight years bedbound, unable to take part in all the educational and leisure activities that most young people take for granted. She says Jessie has been an amazing friend to her as she struggles with the condition, visiting her in her darkened bedroom, keeping in touch when she went away to university, and taking her out for drives or to coffee shops when she feels up to it. Although Hannah is gradually starting to feel better, her recovery path is long and hard-going.
The ME Association says that ‘ME/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has long been recognised as a ‘post-viral fatigue syndrome’ and neurological condition by the World Health Organisation, NHS and Department of Health. It is a chronic and complex medical condition that affects multiple systems in the body.
It most often develops after an acute viral or bacterial infection from which people seem unable to fully recover. It can cause many different symptoms, which can be triggered or worsened by any kind of effort or activity.’
It estimates that more than 1.25m people in the UK are living with a diagnosis of ME/CFS and Long Covid, with many more undiagnosed, and there is currently no cure or effective treatment.
Several years ago, Jessie and Hannah, who met at school in Oxted, created an Instagram video illustrating the lifestyle changes Hannah has had to make because of ME.
Short clips of the girls having fun together are contrasted by ones of Hannah lying in bed being spoon fed, the pills she has to take every day and the symptoms she has had to endure. It is a horrific list, including exhaustion, pains, headaches, muscle weakness, noise sensitivity, insomnia, brain fog, light sensitivity, temperature dysregulation and nausea, among many others. The video is set to Taylor Swift’s song Right Where You Left Me, although the young women’s version amends the title to Right where you Left M.E.
On her fundraising page, Jessie, a physiotherapist at East Surrey Hospital, writes that ‘Hannah is always exhausted, her sleep is always unrefreshing and she is aways in some level of pain. Any type of exertion – physical, cognitive or emotional – will exhaust her even more…so she has to be constantly aware of not pushing her body too far outside of its energy limits.
I’m running to raise money and awareness for Hannah and everyone else left with no treatment options for so many years.’
The half-marathon begins on Pall Mall, and follows a route that will take Jessie past famous London sights such as Nelson’s Column, the Royal Courts of Justice, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London. The finish line is on Whitehall, with views of the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.
Setting herself an initial target of £350, Jessie had already raised £470 by the end of March. To help her achieve an even greater total, please visit her JustGiving page.
