One Last Goodbye

Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of the death of Lynn Gilderdale on 4th December 2008, after 17 years of suffering with very severe myalgic encephalomyeltis, which she had contracted at 14 years of age. Along with others who have lost their lives to the effects of this disease, Lynn is never far from our thoughts and our sincere condolences are with Lynn's family at this time; particularly with her mother Kay, whose deeply moving book, One Last Goodbye, is dedicated to her inspirational daughter. Kay is also a contributor to the film Voices from the Shadows, produced by Natalie Boulton and Josh Biggs, mother and brother of a sufferer of severe ME. In the Epilogue to One Last Goodbye, Kay writes:

“Meanwhile I have decided to carry on campaigning in Lynn's name to promote awareness of ME and to raise money for research. Research is the key to understanding this illness and Lynn has already made her own contribution. When her body was examined by the pathologist who specialised in M.E, he discovered “dorsal root ganglionitis” - infected nerve roots – and nodules of Nageotte, which are little tombs of dead cells, in her spinal cord. These would have caused her terrible pain and sensory nerve damage. They found similar cells in the body of Sophia Mirza, an ME sufferer who died in 2005 at the age of 32, and I believe in other sufferers. These findings are proof that Lynn's ME was a neurological disease”.

Lynn would say to her mother:

“The answers are within me, Mum. It will be too late for me but it will help others.”

Kay says, “I hope she was right and that some good will come out of her death and others will not have to suffer the way she did.”

We sincerely share that hope and extend our deep respect to Kay for all she has been through and our grateful thanks to her for all she is doing to help make that hope a reality. You can read more of Kay's memories of Lynn in our September post here.

“One Last Goodbye” by Kay Gilderdale is published by Ebury Press (ISBN 978-0091939144)


You can read some Amazon customer reviews here.
To help raise awareness, please ask your local library and local book shops to stock copies of this book and also Lost Voices.

You can buy One Last Goodbye from several shops or on-line in paperbook or ebook format from The Random House Group.

If you buy through the Easyfundraising site, e.g. from Amazon or The Random House Group and choose Invest in ME as your cause, the charity will receive up to 2.5% of the price as a donation, with no extra cost to you.

UPDATE:  Voices from the Shadows is now available for those in USA and Canada to view online on MUBI and for those in UK and Europe to buy on DVD.  You can watch the trailer here.

To raise awareness, you could send these links to your MP, GP, local and national media.

The film won the “Audience Favourite Documentary Award” at its world première at Mill Valley Festival, California in October 2011. Invest in ME hosted the film's UK première in Norwich and also in London in December. Thank you for your support in raising awareness of severe M.E.


*Remember ME is a fundraising page on Everyclick for sponsors wishing to donate to our cause in memory of those who have lost their lives to this disease.



Thinking of Lynn Gilderdale on her birthday

Today, we would like to pay tribute to the late Lynn Gilderdale in honour of her birthday.

Lynn was born on 20^th September 1977 in Burwash, East Sussex, later moving to the village of Stonegate with her loving family – her parents Kay and Richard and her older brother Stephen – and growing up to become, in her mother's words:

“everything you could wish for in a daughter: beautiful, bright, loving, accomplished, eager for life and all the delights it had in store for her”.

Kay's description of Lynn depicts a fun-loving little girl, full of smiles, laughter and chatter. With a lively imagination, she loved dressing up with her friends and cousins, making up stories and telling silly jokes, improvising make-believe radio interviews and plays in which Lucky, the family cat, often enjoyed a role, recording their play-acting on a cassette recorder. Though full of fun, Lynn also took her responsibilities seriously and was a prefect at primary school. She loved English, history and religious studies.

Lynn enjoyed the outdoors and being very active. Physically confident, quick thinking and fearless, she was a strong swimmer, enjoyed sailing and was captain of her school netball team. Lynn also loved modern dance, won prizes for ballet and took part in many school productions, including the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, in which she played the White Rabbit. She also played the piano and clarinet and sometimes thought she might become a music teacher, but one thing Lynn knew for sure was that she wanted children of her own one day. She proclaimed:

“Family is the most important and precious thing in life”.

At age 14, Lynn became ill immediately following the BCG vaccination at school. While still unwell, she was struck by a bad bout of flu, swiftly followed by bronchitis, tonsillitis, glandular fever, and a chest infection. Lynn's immune system seemed unable to cope with this onslaught of successive infections and she was on strong antibiotics for months. She was later diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis and sadly never recovered. After 17 years of very severe ME and with no further hope of recovery by that stage, Lynn passed away on 4^th December 2008 at the time of her own choosing, with her devoted mother Kay, as ever, by her side to comfort and support her.

Our loving thoughts are with Lynn and her family of this day 34 years ago, when Kay brought her beautiful, brave and inspirational daughter into the world to touch the lives and hearts of all who knew her and came to know of her. May this day be filled with memories of the happy times.

The full story of Lynn's life may be read in her mother's memoir:

“One Last Goodbye” by Kay Gilderdale

Published by Ebury Press

ISBN 978-0091939144

Click here to read some Amazon customer reviews.

Please ask your local library and local book shops to stock copies.

Currently available to buy in several stores and also on-line in paperbook or ebook format.

If you buy through the easyfundraising site, e.g. from Amazon or The Random House Group and choose Invest in ME as your cause, the charity will receive up to 2.5% of the price as a donation, with no extra cost to you.

Thank you for your support.

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.