Help brave Tammy in her battle with ME/CFS

Tammy has had ME/CFS ( Myalgic Encephalomylitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) for the last five years plus POTS and Mast Cell Activation syndrome.

Her condition now is Very Severe ME/CFS and for the last eighteen months she has been bedridden, in a darkened room, needing an eye mask and ear muffs to exclude any stimuli which causes enormous discomfort.

The first glimmer of hope is a new medication the family has trialled. Glenys ( her mother) said “this week there have been ‘firsts’. The ‘first’ time she let me wash her back. The ‘first’ time we shared a laugh together. The ‘first’ time she had the energy to say a poem she had made up. The ‘first’ time she reached to hold my hand.”

She is now able to be touched and can think more clearly. She hears muffled sounds, children’s voices as they pass under her window on the way to school. Since taking the new medication her head is clearer and her joy in life is making up little stories in her mind about the passing children.

The medication is expensive, $100 per day, and is not funded by Pharmac.

Before Tammy developed this post viral infection, (after glandular fever) she had just completed her first year at university. She played soccer,netball, participated in Circus Arts, and Theatre. She was active in giving back to the community, as a life guard, volunteering and organising recycling at local festivals etc.

Her parent’s Glenys and Dave work 9 unpaid hours a day in the Care Home they set up for Tammy and two other young sufferers.