Lives Interrupted: the Hidden Costs of Having a Neglected Illness
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Lives Interrupted seeks to illuminate the economic and other costs of having diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), post-treatment Lyme disease, and long COVID. These diseases affect millions, typically receive little research funding, and, as a consequence have few good treatments available. Find out more about Lives Interrupted here.
All Stories
| Name: Alison Wiltbank | Years Ill: 32 |
| Location: Ocala, United States | |
| Former Occupation: Part time RN | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 100 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 30 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
$382,347 |
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Story: I have lived a long unhealthy life so I’m going to condense into Timelines for travel, disease … |
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| Name: Bryan | Years Ill: 22 |
| Location: Huntsville, United States | |
| Former Occupation: Family Physician | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 100 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 50 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
$3,660,079 |
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Story: Prior to my illness, I was a very active, very successful member of my community. I was seeing 3… |
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| Name: Leslie Fellows | Years Ill: 9 |
| Location: Santa Cruz, United States | |
| Former Occupation: Winery owner/export director | |
| Current Occupation: Very part-time desk work for our family winery | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 100 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 60 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
$161,978 |
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Story: I started getting sick 10 years ago. Before that I was an active and energetic person attending a… |
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| Name: Mary | Years Ill: 2 |
| Location: Abingdon, England, UK | |
| Former Occupation: Professional Dog Trainer | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 80 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 20 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
£27,864 |
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Story: At the age of 6 I got shingles, then throughout my childhood I had repeated bouts of Tonsillitis,… |
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| Name: Lavenderblue | Years Ill: 3 |
| Location: Little Rock, United States | |
| Former Occupation: Registered Nurse | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 100 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 20 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
$305,609 |
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Story: At first I thought it was just taking a long time to recover. I took it easy for a bit. It never … |
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| Name: T-Rev | Years Ill: 8 |
| Location: Bath, England, UK | |
| Former Occupation: Christian Minister, Charities Director | |
| Current Occupation: Christian Minister, Charity Director | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 100 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 40 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
£155,054 |
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Story: I was living my best life, a high output, high energy, do-gooder. Able to travel and work in some… |
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| Name: MD | Years Ill: 6 |
| Location: Vancouver, Canada | |
| Former Occupation: Family Physician | |
| Former Activity Level (0-100): 100 | Current Activity Level (0-100): 20 |
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Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked:
CA $1,542,301 |
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Story: Got a severe nasopharyngeal MRSA infection from work in 2017 which went misdiagnosed and untreate… |
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Lives Interrupted Latest Story
Allyn Archer
Atlanta, United States
Former occupation: Architect, Professor of Architecture
$2,768,291
Lives Interrupted Sponsor
StudyME
Enroll in the OMF’s StudyME project and help bring about a cure for ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, POTS and long COVID.
