Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar

Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar, (born 19 September 1940) is a British elected hereditary peer in the House of Lords. She has suffered from ME/CFS since coming into contact with sheep dip in 1989 on her farm. Lady Mar founded Forward-ME. She regularly uses her position in parliament to lobby for ME/CFS patients. Lady Mar is a patron of the ME Association, Tymes Trust and ME Research UK.

Illness
Lady Mar came into regular contact with OP sheep dip when dipping her sheep on her farm in the 1980s. She reports having had 'dipping flu' after each occasion of working with sheep dip - runny nose, tight chest and cough - although she did not take much notice of it at the time. It was on one of those occasions, in 1989, when she accidentally spilt some dip into her wellington boot. After several hours, she began to feel the ill effects of skin contact with the dip. Within three weeks, she had developed the first signs of ME/CFS.

The next year she spent housebound and largely bedbound, with symptoms including concentration problems, myalgia, weight loss, and poor focus in the eyes.

Forward-ME
Lady Mar founded Forward-ME in 2008, in order to promote effective joint working by ME and CFS organisations to maximise impact on behalf of all people with ME and CFS in the UK. The charity members of Forward-ME are ME Association, ME Research UK, Action for ME, The Young ME Sufferers Trust, reMemberCFS, Blue Ribbon for awareness of ME, Neurological Alliance, and ME Trust. Meetings are held several times a year, and minutes can be found online.

Parliamentary work
The Countess is co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

Open letters

 * Open Letter to Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan. The Countess of Mar rebuts the psychiatric classification for ME/CFS by Dr. O'Sullivan.

Talks and interviews

 * 2010, House of Lords debate neurological disorders October 11
 * Speeches by Lady Mar - Forward-ME

Online presence

 * House of Lords Profile
 * Countess of Mar - TheyWorkForYou

Learn more

 * Wikipedia - Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar
 * All-Party Parliamentary Group on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
 * Forward-ME