From The Times

December 17, 2008

Doctor's treatment of ME as a mental illness not a physical one caused

unnecessary suffering

Sir, My mother cared for my sister, Sophia Mirza, who like Lynn Gilderdale

(report, Dec 9, and letter, Dec 11), had severe ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Like Lynn's mother, Kay Gilderdale, my mother was a nurse, and cared for my

sister in the face of exceptionally difficult medical "care". Sophia was

treated as if she was mentally ill by her doctors. My mother was treated as

if she was keeping her daughter ill. Sophia was sectioned into a mental

health hospital because she refused to have her physical illness treated as

a mental one. It was two weeks before we could get her out.

My sister died of this disease on November 25, 2005. A post mortem revealed

the extent of her real physical illness. Sophia suffered unnecessarily

because a physical illness was treated as a mental one. How many more deaths

will it take to change the way ME is treated?

Roisin Mirza

Brighton