Being a carer for someone with ME/CFS

Are you a carer? I am. I am not a care worker; I am an unpaid carer. One day 13 years ago, out of the blue, my son collapsed and was blue lighted to hospital. I didn’t realise it immediately, but my life changed in that instant.

Following Carers week, 7th-13th June 2021, the ME Association asked me to ‘blog’ to “help keep carers visible”.

Caring can be isolating and lonely and it can be difficult to know who to turn to; let’s be honest, who else can possibly know what we are dealing with. Yet I did find support and I have come through the worst of times intact. A different person, but intact.

If you’d like to be part of an ME Carers conversation, look out for my updates over this week and join in.

If, like me, you prefer to engage anonymously, then do so. Speaking personally, I do not want to say anything which my son might read or be told of. I am worried that he would see himself as the cause of my ‘difficulties’, as a burden, or as a problem. As a mum I must protect him from feeling anything other than being my son; loved, cared for and supported.

So hello, my name is Martha, my son is John, and I am a carer.

Martha.