Ros Lemarchand

What happens when at the age of 46 you’re suddenly struck down by a mysterious illness? One day you’re fit and healthy. The next day you become seriously ill. You’ve no idea what’s happening to you. Your world is turned upside down. Furthermore no one, including your doctor, believes you. Your life and all that you know and love has to change. How can you accept that your life has to change? What sort of a life can you have now?

I was diagnosed with M.E./CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) in 2003 and after that my life had to change. Through writing poetry it has helped me to cope with the loss of my old life. It has helped me to express my feelings and frustrations of living with a long term chronic illness. I hope it helps others who suffer the same as me to feel less alone with their illness. At the same time I aim to raise awareness of M.E. and to increase better understanding.

Despite my suffering life still goes on. I've always liked poetry and had written some poems before becoming ill. Since then I've written many poems about M.E. and living with a chronic illness. I've also written other poems about my life, love and loss. In these poems you can see how my life used to be and what it's like now. I can still see and appreciate all that's around me. Nature inspires me to write even more poetry.

I've lived in France since 2005 after marrying a French man. It inspired me to use the name 'The French Femme'. I've increasingly taken to writing poems in French which is another challenge.

As you can imagine writing poetry and putting together a book is a very great challenge for me and takes a lot of my energy and effort but I feel it's worthwhile. I hope reader that you will enjoy reading my poetry and learn something about me 'The French Femme' and the illness M.E.

Finally I would like to add that I have a Just Giving page and always donate a percentage of my sales to Invest in ME Research