MAY I use ME Awareness Week (May 7 to 13) 2007 to dispel a couple of myths about it?

First, that it isn't a very serious illness, beyond tiredness or fatigue: The most severely affected 25 per cent - maybe up to 60,000 people -are mostly housebound or even bedridden; some are paralysed, can't speak, need to be tube-fed and require 24 hour care.

Even those who are more independent and mobile lose their job and sometimes, as a consequence, their home and relationships. How much more serious do you want it?

The second myth is that no one dies after having ME: There is now postmortem evidence of inflammation of the spinal cord of victims in the UK, Australia and the US, whose grieving families are tirelessly working for funding for well-designed neurological research while ME. sufferers are alive.

Other ME sufferers choose to take their own life rather than live the misery of one with this dreadfully debilitating illness.

The figures for all these deaths are grossly underestimated because many are simply not examined post mortem, coroners may make suicide a last resort, when other causes are possible and devastated families may remain silent about their loss.

Sadly, myth is often perpetuated as a cover for ignorance, despite these huge personal, incalculable, costs.

DR JOHN H GREENSMITH, ME Free For All.org.