Michael traces his ME/CFS back to 2006 when he had a severe flare of ulcerative colitis.  He was diagnosed almost a decade later.  He became severe after a Covid-19 infection in 2019, and stopped working.  He joined the support group about a year later, and now facilitates the meetings and runs the group’s Discord server.  Michael has a certificate in Applied Counselling, and is available for one-on-one talks, or to accompany patients to doctor’s appointments to advocate for them.

Maria developed the disease in 2007, but it took doctors around seven years to formally diagnose her. There were years when medical professionals told her it was all in her head, and only her family believed her when she said something was wrong. Maria joined the Manitoba support group in 2014. Today, she volunteers — often from bed — as a board member, advocate, grant writer, support group facilitator and social media co-ordinator.

I became severely debilitated early in 2024, with symptoms ranging from full-body one-sided tingling to weakness, loss of coordination and trouble walking, as well as intermittent profound brain fog and unexplained tachycardia episodes. I was a stay-at-home mom planning to return to work that year, but was unable to keep up with basic childcare and household chores. My capacity continued to diminish, and both the variety and severity of symptoms continued to increase over the course of the following 12 months, until I became almost completely bedbound. 

My first attempts to increase my strength and endurance were focused on psychological work and exercise. My body did not respond to exercise as it had when I was healthy, and I became weaker after exertion rather than stronger. 

I was diagnosed by a Doctor of Internal Medicine in the fall of 2024 with ME/CFS, and began attempting to pace my activity. I continued to decline until in winter of 2025 I began incorporating extreme disciplined rest into my daily routine-- 23 hours per day of bedrest and minimal stimulation or mental or physical exertion. My baseline stabilized at this point, and after a few months, I began to see small improvements. 

I'm now able to leave my bed and even my house with medications for symptom management, caregiver support, and a wheelchair once or twice a week, as well as sit up in bed and communicate with people almost daily. 

I am Christian, cisgender with she/her pronouns, pansexual and happily married with three kids. I'm a songwriter, and I used to be a math and English teacher. I am grateful to be part of this community of people who care for each other in the face of this torturous and isolating condition. 

Bev developed ME/CFS in 1996 at age 40 after an untreated strep throat. In her thirties, she developed fibromyalgia. With pacing, she could still work part-time, parent, manage our home and do rewarding volunteer work in the years of fibromyalgia.

Attending the 2011 IACFE/ME Conference in Ottawa was transformative. Listening to Dr. Klimas, Dr. Bested, and Dr. Stein while surrounded by hundreds of patients was life-changing.

Bev misses dancing, hiking and camping of my old life, especially now with two grandsons whom I'd love to do more.

Getting to know others in the ME/CFS community has been extremely rewarding, and Bev enjoys giving back.

Bev’s most helpful coping strategies are pacing, meditation and radical acceptance, diet including vitamin D and B12, and 91/2 hours of restorative sleep.

When Ryan was 30, he went through Cancer, and one of the significant side effects for Ryan was Chronic Pain and fatigue. However, it would be years before he could put a name to it.

After years of jumping from job to job, I finally found a spot where all my hard work had paid off. I had beaten Cancer, gotten married, had kids, and was employed in a position that offered a variety of exciting challenges.

When the pain began to get so bad that I would only be able to work part-time, I started my own marketing company. But even part-time hours spilled over a full seven days was not going to be an option; the pain was just too consistent, and the fatigue and depression interfered with what little bit of everyday life I had left. The anger and frustration with life and the lack of understanding of what I was going through started to push me into a depression.

While taking some sessions on pain and different therapies that may help, I started to reevaluate some of my marketing strategies and tools. A lot of what I learned in marketing focused on how individual emotions can be used to manipulate people into buying one thing or another. Those same strategies were being taught to patients with different therapies and tools to help deal with the pain.

One of the best strategies I found was talking about it and finding common threads between people.

Things Ryan has found helpful:
- Support Groups
- Pacing or Time Management
- Learning Circles or CBT
- Acceptance Therapy
- Volunteering- Helping Others