Schoolboy, 14, struck down by ME during a football match – yet doctors dismissed his symptoms as him being a ‘lazy teenager’

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
In brief
  • Cai Onraet's onset of ME was sudden when his legs went beneath him
  • He suffered fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, and flu-like symptoms
  • Schoolboy made good recovery but aged 19 still suffers brain fog
  • Calling for better awareness of ME among public and doctors
Cai Onraet was always active and sports mad – he was captain of his school football team and played rugby every week.

But he began to suffer some bizarre symptoms. His lips swelled up and he developed a rash that worsened when he exercised or showered. It was so severe that his mother Nikki rushed him to A&E twice, but doctors were left baffled.

Then the 14-year-old collapsed suddenly while playing football.

Cai told i: “My legs went beneath me and I fell to the ground. When I tried to stand I was only able to lift my legs a few inches, as though weights had been tied around my ankles.”

Over the coming weeks, he experienced all the classic signs of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) as it’s also known.

These included severe fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, flu-like symptoms and a sore throat.
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Three out of four people with ME cannot work and one in four are so severely affected that they are rendered house-bound or bed-bound, with some even reliant on tube feeding.
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While some some people with ME do improve over the course of time, it is only a small minority that return to full normal health.
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https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/...-myalgic-encephalomyelitis-me-football-match/
 
he said: “I began to gradually make friends and begin to live my life again. I also joined a gym with my dad, and although I consistently threw up afterwards I knew the importance of the commitment – only I could better myself.”
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I wish him well and am glad that his health has improved, but there are so many unhelpful things in this article.
 
Sly Saint said:
the timing is also suspect, but the article links to MEA?
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I know I wonder if this is John Siddles work or if MEAssociation were just asked to comment. If they have placed the story I would have thought they would have done better to find someone more aware of the advocacy issues. Seems more like an AFME type story.
 
Trish said:
I wish him well and am glad that his health has improved, but there are so many unhelpful things in this article.
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These sorts of articles are most often not written for the benefit of people with illnesses/disability, they're written so that able bodied people feel better about themselves...
 
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