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An attempt at redress? The Sun feature a story on ME... and recovery...

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
08 February 2012: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...fer-hope-to-others-with-messages-of-love.html

'Husband's illness was a sign for me to offer hope to others' Mum's inspiring messages of hope

A THANKFUL wife has taken to the streets to inspire passers-by with messages of hope and love.

To look at her cheery face and inspirational signs, it's hard to believe that just 12 months ago, mum-of-six Starling Linus was facing a grim future.

Her husband Ben was suicidal, suffering from a debilitating illness for which there was no cure.

Against all the odds, he has now fully recovered and Starling is so grateful she wants to share her happiness.

She starts her day like millions of others across the country.

But after waving goodbye to her children at the school gates, she sets out on a unique mission.

She grabs her cheerful, handmade 4ft-high sign, heads into Oxford city centre and, for four hours, cheers up shoppers.

Smile, everything is going to be OK!

Today is not the day to give up!

Hope keeps dreams alive! Keep dreaming!

Her presence has become quite a talking point in Oxford. She says: "Not long after I started standing with my signs, the town crier, who does tours of the city, asked me to tell him the story behind my messages as so many tourists were asking about me."

The story of the full-time mum to children and stepchildren, aged seven to 21, is well worth telling and revolves around her husband's amazing recovery from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

Starling recalls: "He'd been feeling unwell but we just thought it was the flu. Then one day he was walking home from work and his legs gave way."

It took four months before IT specialist Ben, by then bedridden, was diagnosed with ME.

Over the next five years Ben's health deteriorated as the immune disorder attacked his organs.

Starling says: "This man, who had a good career, loved to party, played in a band and had a very active life, now had to be helped to the toilet. Everything changed.

"Our life became a constant round of seeing different white coats."

A year ago he hit rock bottom, becoming so crushed by his illness that he no longer wanted to live.

Starling says: "One night I woke up and he was sitting at the end of the bed. He was completely broken and said, 'I just can't do this any more. I literally can't live like this. This is not living.'

"It was then he told me he wanted to end his life. That he just wanted to die and 'get it over with'. It was terrifying."

But what frightened Starling the most was that at that moment she had supported her husband in his heartbreaking decision. She says: "I thought, 'This is it. He's not getting better. He's getting worse.' It's painful to admit but I sat there and considered letting him die.

"I asked him, if he could do just one thing before he died, what would it be? And that's when he said he wanted to make an album.

"That had been Ben's dream all of his life. His real love was music."

After that day Starling supported her husband in fulfilling his life-long dream and what had now become his "legacy" something for his children and for those who loved him to remember him by.

But Ben who only formed the band HashTag Alice in November after advertising in the local paper somehow, started to get better.

Within six months he had made an astonishing recovery. Starling says: "There were some really rough days and nights but by the time the album was finished, he was well and in virtually no pain. It was magical to watch.

"The doctors didn't really understand how he was getting better. All of a sudden his blood tests were stable and the doctors started reducing the medication he was on."

Now, a year on from that terrible night when death seemed a better option than life, Ben has fulfilled his dream of recording an album.

Ben, 38, says: "Concentrating on the album, being inspired and doing the one thing I always wanted to do as well as the love of my wife that is what saved me."

It was shortly after the release of the band's album It Is What It Is that Starling came up with her novel idea. She says: "I realised Ben's recovery was about deciding to do what he really loved. I wanted to tell other people about what had happened.

"That we should do what makes us happy, what makes us feel alive."

Note: I haven't included all the pictures. Seeing is believing! Anyhoo... quite an inspirational wife and mother by all accounts - if a little OTT for my taste [squirm] I can't help but wonder if this has been featured as some sort of compensation for Liddle's rant - or maybe it's my suspicious nature? :D
 

Marco

Grrrrrrr!
Messages
2,386
Location
Near Cognac, France
08 February 2012: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...fer-hope-to-others-with-messages-of-love.html


"The doctors didn't really understand how he was getting better. All of a sudden his blood tests were stable and the doctors started reducing the medication he was on."

Now, a year on from that terrible night when death seemed a better option than life, Ben has fulfilled his dream of recording an album.

Ben, 38, says: "Concentrating on the album, being inspired and doing the one thing I always wanted to do as well as the love of my wife that is what saved me."

It was shortly after the release of the band's album It Is What It Is that Starling came up with her novel idea. She says: "I realised Ben's recovery was about deciding to do what he really loved. I wanted to tell other people about what had happened.

"That we should do what makes us happy, what makes us feel alive."

Well good for him.

But I'm a little confused about the blood tests. Aren't they always stable?

FWIW I haven't recorded an album but I do enjoy recording.

Hasn't made a blind bit of difference to me.
 

Min

Guest
Messages
1,387
Location
UK
without a diagnostic test it is impossible to tell what he has recovered from - sounds like depression to me


this sort of article is just another stick to beat us with
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
Well Marco that's the difference, you haven't made an album and are now needing to publicise it, come on you're not trying, what are you doing still being sick, oh I know perhaps you DO have ME.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

For goodness sake its only the beginning of Feb and we've had 2 'recovery from ME' stories making it big in the UK press, really really really time we got a diagnostic test............
 

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
Damn! You mean there's something out there that I haven't tried?! Is this like an 'alternative therapy'? I might just contact NICE and get them on board with it. :D

It's a weird - as in whacky - story and those placards really did make me squirm. But I'm pleased for the fellow and for his family, as I am for anyone who feels they've escaped this nightmare.

I wonder what his album is called and whether I can buy a copy? Hmmm..... ;)
 

Desdinova

Senior Member
Messages
276
Location
USA
Lovely, what the average person reads.
1. A strange but nice lady goes around carrying and displaying odd signs. Her motivation to do so is her husband.
2. Her husband was man who worked and played hard.
3. Her husband came down with the flu it got so bad he couldn't walk. Eventually he became bedridden.
4. Her husband went to many doctors but didn't get any better.
5. Her husband decided since he wasn't going to get any better that he would kill himself and told his wife.
6. The wife was understanding and encouraged him to find something in life that he always wanted to do, something he loved.
7. Her husband told her he wanted to make an album, so she supported him in his endeavor.
8 Her husband makes music and releases an album during which he recovers.

What the average person makes out of what they read.

Husband caught the flu and either already was or became depressed about his life. So he decides he doesn't want to live until his wife encourages him to find and focus on something he really wants to do. He does this and his depression is cured along with his physical health problems since they were all in his head.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I wonder what criteria (if any) was used in his ME diagnosis?

If he met CCC or ICC according to a knowledgeable doctor, I'm amazed that he recovered with no treatment. Somehow, though, I doubt he did.
 
Messages
180
I thought the moral of the story was that we should make signs and go into town centers in order to feel better, I already had my signs made as well :(
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
It's "The Sun", they are the SCUM of the Earth.
See Phone Hacking scandal
See 20 odd years of their filth (like the "Hillsborough" sleight, attacks on Scots, disabled, gays, immigrants, non-whites, etc)
I wouldn't wipe my arse with that paper if I'd eaten vindaloo and napalm! :p

Much of what it published is bunkum to put it mildly, and often nasty, deliberately mean-spirited or evil and destructive.
If they told me snow was white, I'd expect blizzards to be black and use soot for ice cubes! :D

They appeal to the worst common denominator, the paper is owned by Rupert Murdoch...ah huh.
 

Min

Guest
Messages
1,387
Location
UK

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
It's "The Sun", they are the SCUM of the Earth.
I wouldn't wipe my arse with that paper if I'd eaten vindaloo and napalm! :p

If they told me snow was white, I'd expect blizzards to be black and use soot for ice cubes! :D

LOL... Silverblade! :Sign Good one::thumbsup: You truly have a way with words... My stomach hurts from laughing.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Interestingly, given the strangeness of the alleged 'recovery' there are claims under the Oxford mail's site's "Mum's city centre messages offer inspiration" that this pair are really alleged con artists Steven Pitcher and Star aka Shelly Pitcher who were behind the failed 'Rock Star Lottery' in which people allegedly lost money.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/9488070.Mum_s_city_centre_messages_offer_inspiration/

http://www.ukbands.net/thread.php?id=14837

LOL! So even the con artists know about us and are using us in their strange schemes? We've come a long way in the past couple of years. :D
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
LOL! So even the con artists know about us and are using us in their strange schemes? We've come a long way in the past couple of years. :D

:Sign giggle::Sign giggle:

From google
"Ben" Linus is a fictional character portrayed by Michael Emerson on the ABC television series Lost"

You couldn't make it up..........
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
This story is inspiring...in a brain twisted kind of way. :rolleyes:

Maybe someone can dress up as Weasley and pretend to have ME. Give a public apology on youtube.... Be interviewed by the Sun, via Skype, from the sick bed.

Just a thought. ;)
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
This story is inspiring...in a brain twisted kind of way. :rolleyes:

Maybe someone can dress up as Weasley and pretend to have ME. Give a public apology on youtube.... Be interviewed by the Sun, via Skype, from the sick bed.

Just a thought. ;)


Oh. Yeah. Weasels. I forgot we've had con artists... or con weasels, anyway... using us in their strange schemes for many years now. Nothing new here.

Now that's cognitive dysfunction, to have forgotten something like that.
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
LOL... Silverblade! :Sign Good one::thumbsup: You truly have a way with words... My stomach hurts from laughing.

My pleasure! ;)
*bows with a theatrical flourish*

and if the accusation that these two are con artists is true..well it jus tproves what I posted in my thread other day, like quacks/witch doctors, the con artists swop down and feed on the chaos and lies of this illness: maggots who feed off weasel poop and what a LOT of it there is too, and chock full of peanutty goodness! :p
 

Nielk

Senior Member
Messages
6,970
I'm surprised at all of you.

Didn't you know that there was such an easy answer to our woes?

Weren't you aware that all you had to do was absorb yourself into a hobby that you love?

Didn't you read all the studies pointing that way?

Oh, but it only works if your spouse is willing to spend 4 hours each day at the mall holding 16 placards thanking the miracle in public.

See, doing what you like is not enough. I know that comes as a shock and I hope you are sitting when you read this.
It only works if it's followed by this public display: day in and day out.

Why? you ask?

Because the story has to be picked up by the best of the newscasters.

If you, as I, still find yourself sick today, it's only because you and I didn't try enough. It's because you and I, have never contemplated ending this miserable life and you and I have not plunged into doing "something we love".

Had we "wanted" to REALLY get better, we would have done this years ago.

How you ask can this be done when one can't even get out of bed? It's a pure MIRACLE. It is clearly a miracle that only happen to people who have such dedicated spouses who will spend 4 hours a day at the mall holding all kind of miracle signs.
How many of us have such dedicated spouses?

Well, that's the problem then.

DB,
You made an album? Is it playing the guitar? I would love to hear it!
 

Dreambirdie

work in progress
Messages
5,569
Location
N. California
like quacks/witch doctors, the con artists swop down and feed on the chaos and lies of this illness: maggots who feed off weasel poop and what a LOT of it there is too, and chock full of peanutty goodness! :p

OMG! Stop it now! I'm LOL again, so hard that I just snorted ginger tea out of nose! :D:Retro tongue::D:Retro tongue::D:Retro tongue::Retro tongue::Retro tongue: