If you want someone to tear a strip off a psychiatrist for belittling your illness, get them to play Andy Beaumont’s magical little song ‘Ball with no bounce’ – now streaming to raise money for the ME Association.
A limpid guitar riff leads directly into an ode fretting that there's is as yet no cure for the illness and about shrinks who talk about getting you better – “when all they want to do is retrain your brain”. The scar tissue of run-ins with the medical system runs deep and, despite the witty banter, it shows.
The song received its first public performance at a charity gig that Andy organised for us in Menai Bridge, Angelesey, last Friday (July 11). For Andy – a retired marine scientist at Bangor University – it was a particularly heartfelt few minutes.
He is sole carer for his wife, Kate, who has had ME for 18 years. She became bedbound a year ago. Like many sufferers, she has already tried many different therapies to try and get better.
She now has extreme ‘brain-fog’ and distress and is unable to watch TV, listen to the radio or read more than a few words at a time.
If you would like to listen to Andy’s song, please make a donation at justgiving.com/ball-with-no-bounce and you will be sent an immediate message about which streaming service to use.
Andy, who recently walked the highest peaks in Wales to raise money for the ME Association before Kate’s condition worsened, is lead singer in local band ‘The Scapegoats'.