How we can help

A A A Text size
Support for 18 and under

Children and young people with M.E.

We know that living with M.E. can be hard, especially when you're young. M.E. can make it difficult to spend time with friends or family and can have a big impact on your life, including school and hobbies. You might have to stop doing some of the things you enjoy for a while, or do them less often so your body can rest. It can be hard for other people to understand what you’re going through and that can leave you feeling as if no-one gets what it’s like to have M.E.

We are here to help. You can:


Join our community

For access to great services, please join our Young People's Community - it's free, and open to anyone with M.E. aged up to and including 18. Some are more severely affected than others, but even if their experiences are different to yours, every member of our community understands what it’s like to live with M.E.

  • Cheers is our monthly e-magazine written especially for and by young people with M.E. Write and submit your own articles about topics that matter to you, or just read what others have written!
  • Our lively Young People's Forum is kept safe a dedicated group of volunteer Peer Support Moderators, who all have experience of M.E. themselves. They will chat with users, provide support and signpost you to resources they think might help you. Some people use the forum to get support and talk about how M.E. effects them, while others use it to talk about things other than M.E., such as hobbies and interests, with people who understand what it’s like to have M.E.
  • We offer a pen pal service that puts you in touch with another young person affected by M.E. We will ask about your interests and hobbies and match you up with someone we think you'll get on with.
  • Some of our more severely affected community members are too ill to write back. If you’re OK with writing to someone and not getting a reply, then you could make a huge difference to someone who’s very isolated and too unwell to see their friends. If you’re severely affected, you can apply to receive a letter from a buddy writer.
  • All our community members receive a handwritten birthday card from one of our volunteers unless they choose not to.

After we've got your completed Young People's Community registration form, we'll send you a welcome email, telling you about our services and sharing a link to the forum. Your forum profile will be checked by the forum administrator. If there are any problems they'll email you to chat about it but otherwise your account will be approved and you'll be able to log in to the forum.