Lives We Cannot Live

Image of a woman on her sofa.

Lives We Cannot Live is a new ground-breaking exhibition featuring photos and stories of people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). It brings identity and visibility to the ME community by highlighting people who suffer with the disease and the devastating impact it has on their lives. 

ME is a doubly invisible illness: not only are symptoms hard to see but the disease attracts little understanding from the public or the medical profession. This leads to people with ME experiencing prejudice and disbelief, making them feel stigmatised and isolated.

Photographer Jeremy Jeffs himself suffers with ME, and sharing the lived experience with the people who sat for photographs enabled him to build relationships and gain access that may not be possible for other photographers – providing very emotive images and stories.

Image of a girl. Image of a man sat on his bed. Image of a boy sleeping. MEA logo

Jeremy Jeffs is a documentary film maker and photographer, with more than 40 broadcast films to his credit who has been researching and shooting for nearly 3 years and the series comprises images of more than 30 people. Some have ME are so severely affected that they are confined to bed, some who are only able to work part time, and many others who are housebound struggle to undertake simple activities of daily living. 

As a leading UK charity for people with ME, The ME Association is proud to present this exhibition, recognising how vitally important it is in raising awareness of ME. ME is multi-systemic disease and around 400,000 people in the UK have this debilitating illness. Symptoms include profound fatigue, sleep disturbance, post-exertional malaise, cognitive difficulties and a range of other symptoms like pain, headaches, nausea and intolerance to lights and noise.

The ME Association has been providing expert help and support since 1980. 
If you’d like to find out more about ME and the UK registered charity The ME Association, please visit www.meassociation.org.uk or find them on social media @meassociation.