“Do they think it’s all in my head, Mum?”, my son quietly asked me as we left the GP surgery.

“I can assure you, son, none of this is ‘in your head’”, I replied with conviction. He had just been told routine practice was to refer to Psychology. He was 20 years old and had been diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).

Before that he was an outdoor-loving young man: cycling, running, climbing and skiing. After a bout of ‘flu’, he never fully recovered. Everything he tried to do exhausted him: college work, physical exercise. Nonetheless he finished his course and started his first job.