Black Isle councillor throws spotlight on impact of chronic long-term illness in follow-up book
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A BLACK Isle woman left bed-bound for years after contracting Lyme disease as a teenager is opening another chapter in her remarkable fightback to health with a follow-up to her successful first book.
Morven May Maccallum – now a councillor on the Black Isle – went undiagnosed for years before the tick-borne illness was found to be the cause.
She said of the sequel to her first book, Finding Joy: "It's called Keeping Joy and it focusses on the consequences of long-term illness and the challenges of trying to rebuild your life after being essentially bed-bound for a decade."
She felt compelled to write the follow-up after discovering a lack of material about the long-term impact of illness. She said: "The real thing that struck me is you go from 16 to 24 being bed-bound and miss so many of life's milestones. You are still in the mindset of a 16-year-old. It is very difficult to get your head around.
"Trying to find a job was so challenging for me. I had no references and I had to drop out of school. It was very hard because nobody would take that chance. You think illness will be the hard part and getting better the fun bit but that's not always the case.
"At 24 I was trying to find a job and and putting myself out there and trying to lead a normal life."
Many of the things most of us would take for granted needed a lot of effort and thought: "Simple things like learning to drive gave me so much freeddom," she said. "I started doing an English degree with the Open University. That has been a big thing for me. I never thought I would be well enough to do it."
She's now in her fourth year of study.
The publication of her first book gave her a sense of purpose. Public speaking, awareness raising and trying to hep people in a similar situation proved valuable groundwork for her council role, she reckons.
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Becoming a councillor for the Black Isle at the age of 28 was "a huge moment". After being approached by the Lib Dems, she realised she had always had an interest in politics and experience of trying to help others through her campaigning and awareness-raising on Lyme disease.
"I've always had an interest in politics. The party came to me and asked if I would be interested in standing as a councillor and I had a lot of thinking to do. It was at a stage where I was potentially not well enough to do it."
She said: "It's a lot of work but it's something I enjoy. It has been wonderful."
She'll be at Picaresque bookshop in Dingwall, at 1.30pm on Saturday for a book launch and Q+A. Another session is planned for Tain Library on October 7.
She said of this weekend's Dingwall event: "I’m delighted to say that the launch of Keeping Joy will be on September 23 at Picaresque Bookshop in Dingwall. I’m very lucky to do doing this launch alongside the amazing Helen Sedgwick, who will be there to chat and interview me about my new book."
