Karen Hargrave is co-founder of an advocacy campaign called #ThereForME, which was launched this past summer to draw public awareness to the UK’s lack of care and treatment and to call “for an NHS [National Health Service] that’s there for people with ME and Long Covid.” The campaign has drawn significant media attention, especially in conjunction with the news coverage of the inquest into the case of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, 27, who died in 2021 of complications from ME despite having been hospitalized three times.
Hargrave is a self-described “policy nerd” with a background in the field of humanitarian relief. During the pandemic, both she and her husband developed ME after acute bouts of Covid-19. While Karen has recovered substantially, her husband remains severely disabled—bedbound, unable to tolerate solid food, unable to read or watch TV. She and Emma, another fellow carer with a severely disabled husband, bonded over their experiences and joined forces to create
#ThereForME. Karen and I spoke earlier today about how the campaign got off the ground and what they hopes to accomplish.
