Kaye Adams, the TV and radio presenter best known for her appearances on the popular daytime TV show ‘Loose Women', really got stuck into M.E. on her BBC Radio Scotland programme this morning.
The programme was inundated with callers and messages after she started discussing the new research from California that strongly suggests that the illness has its own chemical signature similar to that found in hibernating animals.
In the studio with her was Jane Giakoumakis from the Lanarkshire ME Support Group – with ME Association medical adviser Dr Charles Shepherd on the line from London, where he was on his way to a meeting in the House of Commons of the All Party Parliamentary Group on ME.
The latter part of Kaye's show was almost entirely taken up with the discussion, with the host promising to return to the subject at a later date.
Throughout the programme excerpts were read from Hannah Radenkova's blog. Hannah contributed a brilliant piece of writing on her M.E. to the Online Telegraph's women's page yesterday.
Phoning into the show was a former hospital pharmacy worker from East Kilbride. She's had ME for 25 years and only just managed to leave the house for the first time in all those years when she was well enough to do so a fortnight ago. A gentleman from Edinburgh said he had to take medical retirement because of the illness at the age of 49 and would be so washed out by the phone call that he would be going straight back to bed.
Another Edinburgh man had to take to his bed for three months after going down with ME three years ago. It took him ages to get a proper diagnosis and then learn how to manage his symptoms.
The programme is available to listen to on the BBC iPlayer for another 28 days or so. Click on the following link to find it: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07qg455#play Move the cursor to 2.06.24 to begin listening.
Hi Tony
I was actually on the telephone line also during the programme (actually sat up in bed). Thankyou to Charles and hope Kaye does indeed pick up on this again in the near future !
Jane Giakoumakis
Jane
Charles is back on the Kaye Adams show this coming Monday. I’ll be putting more details up over the weekend.