Daliany had an extremely happy childhood and was very popular at secondary school where she was due to be made Head Girl. She jogged every night, was in the netball team, excelled in every subject and was famous for her quick wit and humour.

Then overnight, in December 1997, at 16, she was struck down with gastroenteritis which left her unable to even sit up in bed for many horrific months. She was finally diagnosed at having ME, from which she has not yet recovered..

The following year, still unable to return to school she insisted on persevering at home with her GCSEs, and took all 11 exams, from her bed, with an adjudicator and amanuensis in the room. Her brilliant results were a testimony to her determination to succeed despite her illness.

Inevitably the enormity of this effort caused her to suffer a huge relapse and she was never able to resume formal education, though over the next several years she painfully managed to self-teach and eventually successfully sat (propped up in bed!) her AS and A Levels.

From 1997 until 2005 Daliany and Lynne lived in a very dark, unending tunnel of blackness called ME where once every few weeks Daliany was able to find the energy to venture outside the house for a much longed-for “outing”, e.g. to the park or for a car ride, of just an hour or so, only to have to return to her bed and a darkened room for the next few painful weeks. Any studying was done in 10 – 15 minute “windows” of energy, every few days.

After hearing about VegEPA from a television interview which Prof. Besant Puri gave in May, 2005, Daliany started to take the supplement and noticed a considerable difference in her ability to read and concentrate. She has taken 8 or 9 capsules per day since then and amazingly, in October 2006, at the age of 25, was able to enrol as a part time student at her local university to read for a BA in Modern Languages. Before taking VegEPA she would not have been able to read for more than 10 minutes at a time when “brain fog” set in and she was left in a state of considerable pain, weakness and dizziness.

Attending twice a week for 2 hours is all that Daliany can manage, all the rest of her week is spent housebound or even bedbound, with pain and weakness, but she adores being “out in the world” and “normal” after 8 years of captivity and isolation, if only for 4 hours each week.

The picture below shows Daliany receiving a Chancellor’s Award for Academic Achievement – a wonderful accomplishment given the super-human effort she has managed to get to university at all.



Still cheery and optimistic, Daliany was featured in New! Magazine's double page spread in May 2005 and is only too willing to talk to the media about ME and to (politely) set the record straight about ME whenever this proves necessary!

Lynne, Daliany's mother, is her full time Carer and Founder of The VegEPA for ME Scheme which she started up in the spring of 2006 so that ME sufferers could enjoy the benefits of the supplement without having to pay the manufacturer’s recommended price, a price far too high for those living on benefits.

She helped set up a pilot Survey with Carers in Herts and identified specific ways in which Carers' needs will now be met by GP surgeries in the County. She is involved with all aspects of ME. She has chosen to be by her daughter's side throughout the illness and together they aim to find something good in every day despite the prison that is ME.

Though not religious in the slightest, her mantra is

The Prayer for Serenity

God grant me the Serenity to accept what I cannot change,
The Strength to change what I can
And the Wisdom to know the difference.