FLORENCE Nightingale spent ten years bedridden with, it is believed, what we today would call ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and her birthday, May 12, has been adopted as ME Awareness Day.

There are estimated to be about 500 people with the disabling condition in the Exeter area. Their symptoms of fatigue, pain and cognitive disturbance can range from the mild to the severe, when they might be confined to bed unable to move or speak and needing 24-hour care.

Despite years of confusion and uncertainty about the illness, its apparent resistance to treatment and its gloomy prognosis, it is now becoming clear that patients can and do recover fully. A new approach teaches patients a set of techniques that they use to rid themselves of symptoms.

At the Therapeutic Training Company, we teach the ME Recovery System which draws on the latest research in psychoneuroimmunology, the way four factors interact — our hormonal, immune and nervous systems and our minds.

I spent nearly 17 years with moderately severe ME. I was not often well enough to leave the house and when I did would need a wheelchair; stairs would be negotiated on hands and knees; meals, conversations or even thoughts would be left unfinished for lack of energy.

Now I hike, dance, travel and live a full life.

I experienced a rapid recovery through a mind-body programme and, using that as a starting point, I researched and trained in other innovative approaches to build the ME Recovery System.

Nickie Moates, a doctor's receptionist from Torquay, regained her health after three years of ME when she was "like a couch potato". Now she is able to enjoy life again — running on the beach, playing football with her son — "just being a mum again instead of a spectator".

She added: "I was sceptical but it has given me a life again – a better life than before because of what I learnt on the course"

ME Awareness Day is a great opportunity to alert the general public to both the severity of the illness and to the availability of a route to recovery.