A minor car accident saw Christine Craggs-Hinton change from being an active mother-of-three to a bed-ridden woman, dependent for her daily needs upon her family. She tells Helen Mead how writing a book has helped in her fight back to fitness.

IT WAS a spring day back in 1984 when Christine Earley put her young sons in the car and set off on a trip to Baildon Moor. On the way she was involved in a car accident. "I was so concerned about the boys - I wanted to get them looked at, and I didn't think about myself."

Her neck was hurting but she brushed it off. "I didn't consciously take in that I was hurt - you put your children first."

But the following day her neck became really painful. "The pain went on for about a week, but still I didn't take much notice because I was looking after the kids."

Things improved, but six months later Christine began getting pains in the middle of her back. Over the next two years it spread to her upper back and she was sent by her doctor for X-rays.

"Nothing showed up and they said I was perfectly fine," she says.

But the pain continued. "It went on and on, it was hard with the housework and children to look after and feed," adds Christine, who lives in Baildon.

She struggled with her job as a revenue office in the tax office in Shipley. "I had a lot of paperwork and had to look down all the time - I found it really hard."

Christine's problems went from bad to worse. She trapped a nerve in her neck, then another, and she injured herself further while pushing a shopping trolley round the supermarket.

"I woke the next day with a terrible pain in my neck. The X-rays showed a slipped disc and I was off work for two weeks with neck problems."

The pain also prevented Christine, who was separated from her husband, from going out much. But she was glad she didn't miss one social occasion - a singles night at a local club, where she met her second husband to be.

Father-of-two David spent the evening chatting to Christine and the pair went on to see each other seriously. Says Christine: "We got on really well, and David was very sympathetic and understanding about my problems."

After a year the couple decided to get engaged and went shopping for a ring - but even then Christine's problems got in the way. She recalls: "I remember trying to look down at the rings and finding it really difficult."

Her sons, Mark, now 25, James, 22, and 20-year-old Matthew - who lived with his dad - helped as best they could. "James was only 13, yet he did lots of housework," says Christine.

Her back and neck were so bad that she could not manage to carry James' school bag, nor did she have the strength to bend or pick things up. Yet she struggled on. "The problem was, I was trying to lead a normal life," she says, "I was to pay for it later." She saw a back specialist, who told she would soon be back at work. But she did not believe it. "I was in so much pain I thought I was dying. I thought it must be cancer or something. Yet every time I went for a check a serious illness was ruled out."

On the day of her wedding, Christine was determined not to let her problems spoil the day. "My walking was not too bad, but we went on a canal barge for the reception and I was hurting so much I could not go around and chat to people."

That night, she had used so much energy she felt nauseous. "I could not eat - I felt so sick."

Jokes David: "To say it was our wedding night it was not much fun!"

Later that year, Christine was given painkilling injections which helped. She still had no idea what was wrong, until she spotted a word on a benefit claim form. "The pain specialist was filling it in and I saw the word 'Fibromyalgia."

Meaning 'pain in the muscles and fibres,' the syndrome has many characteristics, most notably it increases the amount of pain transmitting chemical in the body by three fold. says Christine: "Your normal sensations have been hijacked so things like a pat on the back can cause intense pain."

The dozens of side-effects for sufferers - an estimated 3.2 per cent of the population - include depression, low self-esteem and chronic tiredness.

As things began to get worse Christine had to give up work. Then a visit to the dentist left her in agony. "He was filling a back tooth and I had to bend my head to one side for a while. I had another spasm." As a result she was bedridden for 16 months. "David had to feed me, bath me and look after me - I don't know how I would have coped without him," she says.

Whereas many couples would find such an ordeal a strain on their marriage, the experience brought them closer together. "We are really close," says Christine, "If anything can test your relationship something like this can."

Adds David, who gave up his job as a service manager in the motor trade to care for his wife: "I had to get to know Christine a lot faster than I would have normally and we decided to marry before she got poorly."

Gradually, she eased herself back into the outside world. Physiotherapy has helped to some extent but, she says, her saviour came in the form of local homeopath David Fairfax. "He's been brilliant - he released my 'frozen' shoulders and now I can tilt my head for the first time in nine years."

The couple are active members of the West Yorkshire Fybromyalgia Support and Carers Group and - over the past four years - Christine has used her extensive knowledge of the painful, energy-sapping, syndrome to write a book about it. Living with Fibromyalgia is the first British written book on the condition.

"Because I've only been able to spend an average of about an hour and a half a day on it, it took me four years to research and write."

Launched locally on April 10 at Kirkgate Community Centre, Shipley, the book is all about what sufferers can do for themselves and what not to do. Says Christine: "Having it published has made a big difference to my state of mind - because you rely so heavily on others you feel you don't count as a human being."

Now her life is back on track. "I have good and bad days, but I'm doing a lot more. We can go out. David loves seeing me happy and it means the world to the children."

l Fibromyalgia Support & Carers Group (West Yorkshire) helplines: 01274 545745, 07071 880192, 01924 860328 or e-mail: fibromyalgia_westyorkshire@hotmail.com

The group meets every second Monday in the month at Kirkgate Community Centre, Shipley at 7.30pm. The book is published by Sheldon Press at £6.99. Part of the proceeds from the sale will go to the Fibromyalgia Association UK.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.