A young scientist is celebrating the part the ME Association played in her recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome by running for us in Britain’s most popular half marathon on Sunday.
Charlotte Davis, who graduated from Newcastle University with a first-class degree in cellular molecular biology after horrible setbacks with the illness, will be running with her younger brother Jack in the Great North Run.
“We’ll be starting out together but I expect he’ll want to push on and finish much quicker”, said 29-year-old Charlotte, who’s a half marathon novice.
She will be joining three other MEA supporters who each won places in the race through the public ballot. They are 68-year-old Carol Youngs from Pickering in North Yorkshire, her friend Sonja Hather and 17-year-old Harry Bromley, from Selby in North Yorkshire, who we wrote about a few days ago.
Charlotte was 17 and working towards her A-levels when she had throat and gland infections which never seemed to go away. She managed to get good enough grades in her biology, chemistry and maths exams to be accepted by Leeds University to study biology.
But she was unable to complete the course and returned home when what had by now been diagnosed as CFS overwhelmed her. Rather than returning to Leeds when she felt a bit better, she got a place instead at Newcastle University – closer to her home in Jarrow – where she got her First.
PHOTOS show Charlotte Davis with her brother Jack at a 5k race race in Newcastle; Carol Youngs, showing off her MEA running vest; Harry Bromley, in determined running mode; and Charlotte Davis enjoying the sights of Chicago.
Charlotte has worked for an international clinical diagnostics company for five years. At the end of July, she enjoyed a visit to Chicago where she exhibited at the annual conference of the Washington DC-based Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine, combined with some running and sightseeing.
“I lived with post-glandular fever CFS for around five years during some of the most important years of my life. The ME Association was an important resource for me during that time and they fund vital research”, she said.
“I’m one of the lucky ones who have been fortunate enough to recover but a lot of people don’t.”
Carol Youngs tells her supporters on JustGiving:
“My son Phil, who is 38, has ME and his life has been shattered because of it. I really want to raise some money for research.
“I will be 68 when the run takes place and, if I am successful, it will be a very slow run on account of my ageing knees! I ran it in 2010, but 14 years makes a big difference.”
Good luck to our five runners on Sunday! We hope you have a fabulous time and will show us your photos next week to share with everyone here.
If you would like to help Charlotte or her brother Jack reach their fund-raising targets, please use either of these links:
Charlotte Davis – https://www.justgiving.com/page/charlottegnr2024
Jack Davis – https://www.justgiving.com/team/gnr2024charlotteandjack
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Consultant, The ME Association
tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk Mob: 07393 805566
