"Glasgow Centre for Integrative Care inpatient ward"

As a person with M. E/C. F. S, I find myself lucky to live in Glasgow and therefore have access to such a ward.

I was in the ward twice this year (a week at a time) and each time has been very helpful. M. E is an illness with no real treatment or cure. We need to learn to manage symptoms. Spending time in the ward helped me dramatically with this.

I was helped with my sleep pattern (invaluable when the illness leaves me with very little energy). I was helped with pacing (an energy management technique that is very difficult to put in place without help).

Furthermore, I was surrounded by staff who understood the challenges of living with a chronic illness and how it affects everything in your life. I was surrounded by staff who listened and gave us all the help they can.

As someone who is mostly housebound, I couldn't have simply come back and forth to the hospital to attend the classes offered to us during the week in the ward. I couldn't have climbed up and down the stairs to my flat and taken a taxi twice a day for a week.

A week in the ward allowed me to access the classes, a knowledgeable staff, others patients with the same illness (some of them now "online" friends), an amazing garden (with no stairs! ); all this while being able to rest in a bed between classes/meals and sleeping on site.

People with M. E have very little in terms of specialist help. This is because of the nature of the illness. We are lucky in Glasgow to have it.