Hi. I’m Deborah, Im 21 and I live in Norfolk.

Before I became ill, I was hard working and very ambitious. Even though I had no idea of what I wanted to be, I wanted to achieve. I recieved good grades at school passing all my GCSE’s and then began college. I found it hard. Infact that would be an understatement. I failed my first year and started again with different subjects. That too I found hard, but due to tiredness, and I would bunk off to my friends to sleep on their sofa.

I left there and changed college’s and found something I was brilliant at. I loved accountancy and really excelled at it. Then a number of things happened at once. I became quite ill, and it was put down to asthma. Looking back, it wasn’t asthma at all. I was put on steroids but didn’t seem to be getting any better. After 6 moths I was able to come off steroids but I had left college. I had witnessed a motorbike accident and I was so shocked by it that I wouldn’t leave the house. I would have panic attacks and not even let my family leave the house incase they died. This was the start of my illness. I came home from college that day, went to bed, and never got out again.

I tried other courses and to rebuild my life, apprenticeships at a nursery, university, but I was never able to get past the first term or last longer than a few months at a job due to extreme fatigue and feeling generally unwell.

I had severe muscular pains, but after a bad bout of flu over Christmas 2009, the muscle pains got worse. Infact my whole health got worse. I have been in a ‘relapse’ since October 2009 and still not shifted that flu completely.

I have been told by my doctors that the feel it is ME/CFS, but they need to rule everything out so I am still waiting for an official diagnosis.

I love writing, which is why I have set up this blog.  This webpage used to be a book review page, but I have deleted everything and started again to try and share my experiences, to raise awareness, and show sufferers that they are not alone.

I hope you enjoy reading them