A mum who was confined to a wheelchair after being struck down with ME is now planning to walk the length of the country after fighting her way back to health.
Teacher Elizabeth Everington hopes to attract enough funding so that she can help others with the condition, which causes intense physical or mental exhaustion.
Elizabeth, 50, who lives in Dacorum, became ill when life’s challenges of balancing a career and being a mother of children with mental health and learning disabilities became too much for her.
She said: “I had actually reached the point that I was discussing euthanasia with my husband.
“I’m a very active person and the thought of living my life with no hope and the constant crashing, I just couldn’t live like it any more. I just wanted to die.”
But then the mum-of-three came across an alternative therapy that claims to be a ‘complete strategy for health and wellbeing’ called the Lightning Process – a training programme that shows you a way to use the connection between your brain and body to help improve your health.
She credits it with putting her on the road to recovery after suffering with the illness for around three years.
In May she will embark on a walking challenge from John O’Groats to Land’s End on a 10-week journey with a pal where they will cover up to 30 miles a day. The trip is expected to see them walk around 1,000 miles. “I’m doing it because I can,” said Elizabeth.
“I have always loved walking and when I got ME my fear was that I would never get the opportunity to walk this beautiful country.”
She has undergone around two years of training to become a Lightning Process practitioner and wants to raise cash to help others, who may not otherwise be able to afford it, attend the course.
“I want to raise sponsorship and funds for the walk and anything over and above I want to use it for prospective clients who feel the course is right for them but are challenged financially,” she said.
To support Elizabeth find out more at www.nexstep.co.uk.
You can also find out more at a series of free one-hour presentations about the Lightning Process being hosted by Elizabeth. The first is this evening at the Holiday Inn in Breakspear Way from 7.30pm, and then Thursday, February 28 at the Holiday Inn, Apsley, at 7.30pm and Thursday, March 21 at the De Vere, Hunton Park, Kings Langley, from 7pm.