Post-Exertional Mayonnaise

Daniel meets his childhood paediatrician, Dr Nigel Speight again after almost 30 years. We talk about the history of disbelief that comes with an ME diagnosis, his work with families who are accused of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) and his hopes and fears for the future. www.pempod.com Contact us: pempodcast23@gmail.com

Daniel chats to Becky Holmes, a British writer who lives with ME. In her book, 'Keanu Reeves is not in love with you', Becky explores 'the murky world of online romance fraud'. Becky discusses her own experience of becoming ill with ME and how she developed her book idea. Book available here: https://amzn.eu/d/dAYDJZJ www.pempod.com pempodcast23@gmail.com

Dov and Dan catch up and talk about a range of issues relating to living with ME/CFS. We talk about how we go about explaining our chronic illness to others, the recent article in the Guardian by George Monbiot and the challenges of getting your hair cut! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/12/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-treatments-social-services Ivan Illich: The Right to Useful Un...

Daniel is joined by award winning health science writer, Amy Arthur, who has written a book about pacing. Pace Yourself: How to have energy in an exhausting world, brings Amy's experience of living with ME into a book for anyone dealing with fatigue. We talked about the challenges of writing a book about fatigue and pacing, the importance of rest, the impact of emotional energy output, social...

Daniel is joined by Anna Redshaw, creator of Blue Sunday: Tea Party for ME. Blue Sunday takes place each year during ME Awareness month. The aim is simple - to raise awareness of ME and money for ME charities, whilst having a cup of tea and a piece of cake! Anna explains how the initiative began and grew into something that has raised over £100,000 for ME organisations over the last 12 years. Find...

Bear Lawrence joins Daniel to tell us about his recent debut fiction publication: The Embleton Murders, A DCI Parrish Crime Thriller. We talk about Bear's experience of becoming ill with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and how he was led to write about his experiences and ultimately write a crime thriller centred on a character with ME. Bear's books can be purchased through Amazon: https://amzn....

In this episode Daniel chats to Sacha Kenton, a screenwriter from New England living with ME who has written a dark comedy tv series called 'I Meow Back'. A proof of concept is being recorded this summer and it is hoped that a large streaming service will pick up the series to produce it going forward. Sacha is passionate about portraying disability in the mainstream. If you would like to...

Dan and Dov catch up. We talk about the impact of recent deaths within the ME community, delve further into the Dragons' Den debacle and review recent episodes of the podcast and our grief series. Beth Mazur obituary: https://www.meaction.net/2024/01/10/beth-mazur-celebration-of-life-service/ Steve Topple article on Dragons' Den for the Canary: https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/01/24/a...

We end our Grief Stories series with a conversation with Emily Bazalgette who set up and runs GriefSick: a project exploring and bearing witness to chronic illness grief. Emily saw the need to provide a space where chronically ill people could explore the subject of grief, and is training in grief tending. Emily shares her own story and explains some of her findings from her research into grief an...

On the 18th January an episode of Dragons Den was aired in the UK. A pitch was made to business people asking for an investment into a company which sells acupuncture ear seeds. A claim was made by the entrepreneur that the ear seeds had aided her recovery from ME. Daniel is joined by Hollie-Anne Brooks, a journalist with ME who responded quickly with an article in Digital Spy which stressed why t...

Daniel is joined by Florencia who lives in Scotland. In 2014 Florencia was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer called Ewing Sarcoma. Following surgery she developed Arthrofibrosis which has impacted her significantly in the years since. Florencia explains the debilitating and limiting nature of Arthrofibrosis on her life and how whilst there are possible treatments, these are inaccessible to her. Co...

In the summer of 2023, Judith who lives with Severe ME and her partner, Matthias, a visual and performance artist, organised an exhibition in a prestigious gallery in Vienna, Austria. Here, over a period of months, Judith and Matthais recorded video responses to Daniel's questions about ME and the creative process, and about arranging the exhibition with contributions from severe ME patients f...

Rebecca talks to Daniel from Senegal about her experience of becoming ill with ME and adjusting to a new way of life, having to adjust when being a single parent and the guilt that ME brings. Rebecca places importance of living in the present and aiming to replace negative emotions with peace, calmness, joy and kindness. We had some technical issues, so apologies for the sound quality and drift. h...

Daniel is joined by Litsa and her dog Jordan (who she describes as an inveterate cuddler and the primary reason she's alive). Litsa shares from her 30 year history of life with ME and we explore how she's navigated a writing career: interviewing famous music artists, publishing her own deeply personal stories, and raising awareness of the reality of ME at the highest levels. Millions missing episo...

Michael Brooks from Chat with M.E. podcast joins Daniel for a joint episode where we talk about the challenges of getting through Christmas/Hannukah/Yule whilst living with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Michael's podcast can be found wherever you listen to podcasts! Michael mentioned the National Theatre at Home's subscription which can be found here: https://www.ntathome.com/ Get in touch: p...

dSavannah joins us from Georgia in the US to share her life with ME and chronic illness. She shares her history, the grief over the things she has lost to ME and practical ways of managing grief on a daily basis, such as channelling anger and utilising gratitude. pempodcast23@gmail.com www.pempod.com

Ash lives in Sheffield in the UK. He has been living with POTs and ME for a number of years. In this episode he shares the challenges of spending the majority of his time in bed and the grief that comes with that. We discuss long distance relationships, and the benefits of having a good therapist. www.pempod.com pempodcast23@gmail.com

In this episode we talk to Jennie Jacques who played Queen Judith in the History Channel Vikings series. Jennie talks about her experience of becoming ill with ME/CFS in 2018 and her passion for the science around the illness. Jennie asserts that this is not a mystery illness and stresses a desire to make a difference for the ME community. We also hear about her famous missing ear and related zebr...

Dov returns and we discuss the project so far and our own reflections on grief. We read three written contributions from Lydia, Kirstie and Pamela. We have five more Grief Stories episodes to come in the following weeks. www.pempod.com Email us at pempodcast23@gmail.com

Colleen has been living with ME/CFS since 1989, as she says 'it's been a while'. Colleen oversees two facebook groups: ME-ICC & Other marginalised diseases (public group) ME-ICC Info (Private group) She also writes a substack: View from the Trenches of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis which you can find here: https://colleensteckelmeiccinfo.substack.com/ Contact the podcast: pempodcast23@...

Patricia Fortlage is an award-winning photographic long-form storyteller and fine art photographer. In this episode we talk about her project 'Lemonade' which uses dramatic, personal and sometimes comical images to express her 'love letter to the chronic illness community'. If you have the energy, we'd recommend visiting Patricia's website while you listen so that you can v...

Tamara shares her experience of becoming ill with ME/CFS and her attempts to adjust to life "as a jailed Tiger". https://www.pempod.com/ pempodcast23@gmail.com

Sally Doherty is a children's author living with ME/CFS in England. Sally has two books published in the Toby trilogy with further work to come in the year ahead. Here Sally talks to us about her ME journey, the importance of writing characters with ME into her work and how she manages her writing alongside living with ME. Sally's books can be found on Amazon here: https://amzn.eu/d/6GF2Sq...

Rachel Horton is a Health Coach living in Michigan USA. She shares from her own experience of CFS as well as reflecting on her work in the health profession. Rachel referred to the writing of Victor Frankl, who's work can be found here: https://amzn.eu/d/966D42Q www.pempod.com pempodcast23@gmail.com

We meet Christina Baltais who uses her art to express her experiences of life with ME/CFS. Christina's art and writing can be found through her website: https://www.wordsasmedicine.com/ and https://seemeexpo.com/christina-baltais. You can learn more about bake4ME/CFS here: https://bake4mecfs.com/ Post-Exertional Mayonnaise: https://www.pempod.com/ E-mail us at pempodcast23@gmail.com