Helensburgh woman to take on sponsored walk for charity

Ms Griffiths, who works as an administrator for Babcock at Coulport, said there was a misconception of ME - with many thinking it is 'the lazy disease’.

She said her walk would be around a mile - which for a fit and healthy person would be like taking on a 10km race.

She told the Advertiser: “There are a lot of people across the country doing the same thing, as part of ME awareness day on May 12. “It’s about a mile - but for most ME sufferers it would be like running a 10k! The walk will take me a while, and I will probably have to stop and have a seat a few times. That’s why I picked the route I did, as there are benches right along the front.” Mr Griffiths is hoping to take on the sponsored walk on the first weekend in May, along with many other ME sufferers across the country. She will walk from the John Logie Baird statue to Kidston Park, along Helensburgh sea front.

She told the Advertiser that she was active, happily walking from Helensburgh to Rhu, but in the past year she has had to battle to get her health back up following a relapse.

Ms Griffiths said that she had suffered from bad health in the last year, and had only recently returned to work full time, which was her 'priority’.

She said: “I’ve had it a long time, but it’s a kind of fluctuating illness. It’s like a virus, I was quite active before, it took a long time for me to get my health back up. “I had a very bad year last year, I’m slowly getting back to normal, my social life gets put on hold.

“About 18 months ago I had a bit of a relapse. I was just doing too much and there was a lot going on.

“My body was telling me to slow down, but me being me I just kept going. At the end, I really was quite ill, it got too much for me.

“I started getting the aches and pains again, that’s when I realised there was not very much out there for ME sufferers. It’s been quite tough. I’m still nowhere near where I was before relapsing. “ME is managed but not cured.

“It has affected me a lot, my work is kind of my priority just now though. I have hobbies that I can’t do. “I have a Ford Focus RS and am part of a car club - we go to car shows and things like that. I’ve had to pack it in and only go to local things. “People might see you and think you look okay but you’re not.

“My friend invited me out the other night but I was just too tired so I wasn’t able to go. They don’t know that I have has to rest all day for it, if someone invites you out for a meal.

“There’s a few people in the area who have ME.

“There’s nothing here, it would even be good if we could get something like a coffee morning but it’s even getting the energy to organise something.” She told that Advertiser that her symptoms include pain in her legs and slight confusion - when she gets things 'muddled up’.

She said: “I get a lot of pain, absolutely exhausts you. If you have a bad night sleep, it’s like that but 10 times worse. Mainly I get very tired. I also get things muddled up, it’s called brainfog. Everyone has different symptoms.

“I go a bit shakey, if I don’t sit down, I fall down. I wasn’t able to go down to the shops and back without collapsing.” Ms Griffiths said that she had already surpassed her initial fundraising target - and was hoping that she would be able to raise more money for Perth-based charity ME Research UK.

She said: “I’ve met my target of £250, I didn’t think there was going to be that many people. A lot of it is has come from the RS club members - some I’ve never even met.

“I think that ME Research UK is a good charity, They have been so helpful with things. I know that they are doing a lot of research so I wanted to raise money for them.

“ME is not well known, there is a bit of a stigma with it - as the 'lazy disease’.

“It’s on the up but we need more research and hopefully one day a cure.

“I would really like to raise awareness of ME, just because you look okay doesn’t mean you feel okay.” To sponsor Emma, visit her JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/MissEmmaG/