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‘I mourn the life Mag could have led. Missing her has only just begun.’ A Personal Tribute to Mag Friel by Marion Michell | 19 April 2018
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...to-mag-friel-by-marion-michell-19-april-2018/
A tribute to Mag Friel
Who had a great capacity for friendship
10 October 1953 – 31 December 2017
(by Marion Michell)
This tribute is also available as a podcast audio recording.
During Mag’s funeral service, attended by her carers and friends from the support group whose gatherings she had never been able to join, the depth of love for her was palpable. Only an elderly couple had known our friend in blooming health, neighbours since she had bought a battered house and set to doing it up, by herself.
In the end she lived in a hospital bed in a darkened room on its ground floor, unable to tolerate a hug, or being washed, because she hurt so much.
And now let’s talk about rage. We have seen too many notices about M.E.-related deaths & suicides. These are not ‘tragic’ losses, they are shameful!
To most of the world Mag (and thousands like her) – bed-bound, in constant pain, with a catalogue of spreading and ever more debilitating symptoms – do not exist.
Mag had severe M.E. for 25 years! Imagine what could have been achieved if research had not been impeded by the ‘it’s all in your head brigade’. Years, even decades of unmediated, unattended suffering, can drive a person to that last desperate step.
It is appalling that these conditions persist. We need a radical change in attitudes and substantial funding for long overdue biomedical research, now!
I mourn the life Mag could have led. Missing her has only just begun.