the grimsay press

What is wrong with ME. A Case of childhood Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
The Illness and the Controversy
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By Fergusson, Merryn
ISBN 1845301269
Paperback  180 pages
Published 19 September 2012
UK Price £12.95   Order from
US Price $19.95   Order from

ME is the most common cause of long-term absence from school. A mild case causes regular absences from education, social life and sport, a severe case leaves a young person housebound or bedbound for years. So why is ME surrounded by a lack of understanding, even within the medical professions? During the three years when her teenage son Chris could not go to school, Merryn Fergusson kept a diary - which here becomes the remarkable and candid story of ME as seen through Chris's eyes and through the experiences of his mother, family and friends. The book also traces the history of ME from the 1930s and the emergence of the medical controversy over CFS/ME. It is a controversy which baffles sufferers and their carers, the tragic consequences of which can be the forcible removal of young people from their homes and families.

Merryn Fergusson is a practising physiotherapist who has lived and worked in Cornwall, London, Edinburgh and Ayrshire before moving to Galloway in 1999. She has been interested in ME especially as it relates to children and young people since 2001. She is married to Alex Fergusson, MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries.
