Living with ME

15 May 2010, 08:21 | Updated: 16 May 2010, 11:21

An art event's taking place in Oxford to help us understand better what it's like to have M.E.

Paintings done by sufferers of the illness, which can leave you continually tired, are being displayed at the Magic Cafe near the Cowley Road.

The illness affects approximately 2,700 people across Oxfordshire and 200 of those are under the age of 18. Many more are affected as family members and carers.

Jan Seed from the Oxfordshire support group OMEGA (Oxfordshire ME Group for Action) has been telling Heart: "They do say a picture is the same as a thousand words, so people can see through the pictures some of what it's like to have ME."

18 year old Charlotte Pritchard says painting's helped her express what it's like to have ME: "I have found with my ME that isolation from friends is the hardest part to manage which is why I needed to portray this in my work."

The art exhibition runs at the Magic Cafe, Magdalen Road, Oxford until Saturday 29 May between 9am and 6pm (not Sundays).

The painting shown is one by Jan Seed, in which she has tried to show how ME can be like weights weighing down on you, preventing you from doing very much.