‘It was like a slow death’ (From The Northern Echo)

‘It was like a slow death’

12:21pm Friday 9th May 2008

• Print
• Email
• Share

After suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome for eight years Daniel Sole feared he would end up in a wheelchair. Now he has learned to live again, he tells Lucy Richardson

WATCHING Daniel Sole spring up from his chair, it's hard to believe that just two months ago he was crawling to the bathroom and couldn't stay awake for more than three hours at a time.

His complexion used to be grey but now his eyes sparkle and his has a tan from all the walking he has been doing recently with his beloved basset hound Sydney.

He has just taken part in the Lightning Process, a three-day training programme.

Participants learn how their brain and body have become trapped by damaging unconscious responses which have blighted their health and stunted their lives.

Elements of osteopathy, self hypnosis, life coaching and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) are then taught to replace the bad responses and to kick-start the recovery process.

Daniel's physical and mental health problems started about eight years ago when his employer went bankrupt and the relationship with his girlfriend ended. He was diagnosed with depression but now, looking back, he thinks that the extreme tiredness he was feeling was the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Just a year after starting a new job the wave of exhaustion washed over him again, but this time he was determined to stay mentally strong. Doctors carried out blood tests which revealed nothing until, to Daniel's relief, a newly qualified GP diagnosed his symptoms of extreme tiredness, pain, poor vision and balance as chronic fatigue syndrome or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).

"I was off work for two months and had been back for only two weeks before going rapidly downhill again," he says.

"I had to use the lift as I couldn't walk up the stairs and I had to steady myself on the wall. I would sweat immensely, I lost a lot of weight and my skin colour was grey.

"I heard third-hand that people thought I was lazy. I lost touch with some friends and I had to end relationships, which affected me badly. I had no social life as I was unreliable: often I couldn't go out after arrangements had been made."

Daniel, from Elmtree in Stockton-on- Tees, returned to his job in clinical governance at Hartlepool Primary Care Trust for three years until his health plummeted again nine months ago.

"I could feel the pains in my legs getting really bad and I was sweating badly.

I knew it was back," he says. "My employers were very supportive and I was signed off for four weeks. The doctor did more tests but all he could do was cancel out other things, my liver and kidneys were working fine."

"I tried to keep myself mentally strong, but I did allow myself to have a few tears because inside I was disintegrating.

I could not stay awake for more than two or three hours at a time. I worried about how I was going to pay the mortgage and I considered moving back in with my parents.

"Sometimes I had to crawl to the bathroom and I had my hair cut really short so I could wash it with one hand and use the other to support myself.

"I felt guilty that I couldn't take my dog, Sydney, out for long walks but he was a big reason for me to keep going. At the back of my mind I always knew that I was going to beat it."

Daniel, 35, tried different therapies including acupuncture, gradual exercise and even consulted white witches before seeing a feature on BBC Look North last year about the Lightning Process, an international programme which claimed to help people suffering from ME. When he signed up for the three-day course in March, he was at rock bottom.

"It was definitely a last resort. I would have jumped through fire, I was so desperate.

I knew that I could not go back to work in the state I was in," he says. "I was getting worse and knew that I might lose my job, my house and my mobility.

There was a strong chance I could end up in a wheelchair. My body was shutting down, it was like a slow death."

Taking part on the Lightning Process in Darlington with Daniel was a 39-yearold woman had also suffered with ME for several years and a lady in her late 60s who had been house bound for 12 years.

"At the end of the third day I came home and did lots of housework, went shopping and dug the garden," says Daniel. "Things have gone from better to brilliant. I am know looking forward to taking my four-year-old nephew, Joseph, camping because I could not play with him before and that was soul-destroying.

"I am going back to work, playing golf, taking the dog out for lots of walks and I might even meet a nice girl. I did not have a real life for eight or nine years, but I now have so much to look forward to."

Sarah Marshall taught Daniel's Lighting Process at her Raincastles clinic on Duke Street in Darlington. She had ME for six years before going on the course and then training as a Lightning Process practitioner.

"The body and mind powerfully influence each other. People end up ill for many different reasons but we look at what keeps them stuck in an illness .

stress, the adrenaline cycle and the unconscious responses they are having,"

she says. "If the philosophy of the Lightning Process makes sense to the person, they will be more willing to put in the work.

"They also must be open-minded as it can challenge their beliefs. We teach people the tools for them to regain their health. It is very empowering. I do not believe that ME is in the mind, however. It is a very real physical illness."

* Sarah Marshall is on 01325-468587 or log onto www.raincastles.co.uk

• Print
• Email
• Share