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Bear with ME: Stories and articles to raise awareness of Long Covid, Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Informative, honest and enlightening" "Refreshingly honest and relatable" "Brilliant"
‘Bear With ME’ is a collection of humorous, heart-breaking and heart-warming stories and articles. All were inspired by true events experienced by the author, Bear Lawrence, who has led a quite remarkable life. ‘Bread, Biscuits and Murder’, ‘Motorbikes, Helicopters, PTSD and ME’, ‘me and my ME’ and other astonishing, inspiring, educating stories will leave you both laughing and crying as Bear reveals his soul. These stories and articles were written to raise awareness and help those touched by Long Covid, Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS. The back story to each of these makes for compelling reading in a book you’ll struggle to put down. Bear hopes that like himself, you too will become an ‘Awarenessist’.
These are just a few of the 5 star reviews
Wonderful book
Quite simply a wonderful book. It made me cry, it made me laugh, many times. Written from the heart, it gives the most realistic account that I have read of what it is like to live with chronic illness. Not just the person with the illness, but also their partner, friends and family.
Refreshingly honest and relatable
Refreshingly honest and relatable. Hopefully this will help others understand what ME and fibromyalgia are like to live with. Made me wonder whether the frustration I feel not being able to do things is a type of grief. We are not a waste of space! Thanks Bear.
A voice for the chronically ill
"Bear with ME" is a collection of articles detailing the author's experiences with chronic illnesses, including ME and Fibromyalgia. Bear Lawrence speaks for me and for the millions of us who have been missing from our normal lives for months, years, or even decades due to ME and other related illnesses. With the advent of Long Covid, it is more important than ever to find a cure or effective treatments for these diseases. In this book, Bear deals with the heavy topics related to chronic illness with empathy and humor.
"Informative, honest and enlightening" "Refreshingly honest and relatable" "Brilliant"
‘Bear With ME’ is a collection of humorous, heart-breaking and heart-warming stories and articles. All were inspired by true events experienced by the author, Bear Lawrence, who has led a quite remarkable life. ‘Bread, Biscuits and Murder’, ‘Motorbikes, Helicopters, PTSD and ME’, ‘me and my ME’ and other astonishing, inspiring, educating stories will leave you both laughing and crying as Bear reveals his soul. These stories and articles were written to raise awareness and help those touched by Long Covid, Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS. The back story to each of these makes for compelling reading in a book you’ll struggle to put down. Bear hopes that like himself, you too will become an ‘Awarenessist’.
These are just a few of the 5 star reviews
Wonderful book
Quite simply a wonderful book. It made me cry, it made me laugh, many times. Written from the heart, it gives the most realistic account that I have read of what it is like to live with chronic illness. Not just the person with the illness, but also their partner, friends and family.
Refreshingly honest and relatable
Refreshingly honest and relatable. Hopefully this will help others understand what ME and fibromyalgia are like to live with. Made me wonder whether the frustration I feel not being able to do things is a type of grief. We are not a waste of space! Thanks Bear.
A voice for the chronically ill
"Bear with ME" is a collection of articles detailing the author's experiences with chronic illnesses, including ME and Fibromyalgia. Bear Lawrence speaks for me and for the millions of us who have been missing from our normal lives for months, years, or even decades due to ME and other related illnesses. With the advent of Long Covid, it is more important than ever to find a cure or effective treatments for these diseases. In this book, Bear deals with the heavy topics related to chronic illness with empathy and humor.
156 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 9, 2022
5 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Bear Lawrence
11 books7 followersHi,
I'm Bear Lawrence and I’ve enjoyed an interesting life. I’ve worked as a delivery driver in Norway, a helicopter tour pilot in the Caribbean, and a flight instructor in Oregon. In the UK I’ve been a sales assistant, gardener, landlord, biomedical engineer and award-winning inventor. I’ve even been lucky enough to have raced motorbikes, karts and yachts.
Suffering from stress as an overloaded university lecturer, I caught a viral infection and was in bed for seven weeks. Afterwards, I found I was utterly fatigued all of the time. Five months later, my GP diagnosed me with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or simply ME. ME is also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), or ME/CFS.
Struggling to articulate the illness to friends and family, I started to write articles to promote awareness of the condition. I kept on writing and was later also diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Eventually I wrote a book titled 'Bear with ME' to promote awareness of chronic illnesses and hidden disabilities.
I hope you enjoy my work.
Kind wishes,
Bear
I'm Bear Lawrence and I’ve enjoyed an interesting life. I’ve worked as a delivery driver in Norway, a helicopter tour pilot in the Caribbean, and a flight instructor in Oregon. In the UK I’ve been a sales assistant, gardener, landlord, biomedical engineer and award-winning inventor. I’ve even been lucky enough to have raced motorbikes, karts and yachts.
Suffering from stress as an overloaded university lecturer, I caught a viral infection and was in bed for seven weeks. Afterwards, I found I was utterly fatigued all of the time. Five months later, my GP diagnosed me with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or simply ME. ME is also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), or ME/CFS.
Struggling to articulate the illness to friends and family, I started to write articles to promote awareness of the condition. I kept on writing and was later also diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Eventually I wrote a book titled 'Bear with ME' to promote awareness of chronic illnesses and hidden disabilities.
I hope you enjoy my work.
Kind wishes,
Bear
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 28, 2022
An awareness book with lots of articles, stories, history and information. Bear Lawrence has compiled all his work together and formulated a book which can be categorised as self-help. It has some really good content that will aware you of the different and hidden situations of other people. Many people might not appear unwell, but we never know what’s going on with them on the inside. We shouldn’t be too quick to judge people based on how they look, because we never know what’s happening on the inside. This book has many tips and strategies to overcome ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia and long Covid. There’s a bit of repetition of several paragraphs and I lost interest completely in between. But it’s a helpful and beneficial read.
November 27, 2022
This is an important book that offers insight into what someone who is suffering from a chronic illness. It shows that we don’t always know what is going on with people we interact with and that we should have more patience and compassion.
November 28, 2022
This is fantastic self help book that isn’t like other self help books: boring or bland. This book has a lot of stories mixed with articles that will keep you interested till the end. This way you will get entertained and get knowledge all at once. This book will aware you about the ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, fibromyalgia and long covid. The author has brought the attention of his readers towards these disabilities as many people are not aware about them. Honestly I wasn’t too, until I came across this book tour and signed up for it. I hight appreciate such books and authors for coming forward and sharing their story with the world. So proud of Dr. Lawrence for striving so hard everyday and making so many big changes in this world. Highly recommended!
November 28, 2022
Marvellously written and compiled. The idea of adding all your articles and stories together is awesome. The tone and writing style is really good and intelligible. It’s an awareness book but it’s also really fun to read with all the life stories of the author. He has shared some strategies and tips and tricks to remember certain things because memory loss is one of the biggest issues of ME. The author has not only made us aware of ME/CFS, but also fibromyalgia and long Covid so this is a complete book with great knowledge and information. I absolutely love it and I highly highly recommend it!!!
November 28, 2022
What a wonderful book it was! Dr. Bear Lawrence has described all his work, experiences, stories and articles in great detail. The writing is very simple and understandable, there are no hard words that can’t be read or understood so easily. It is easy to read and comprehend the whole book and it’s a very helpful read for not just the people suffering from ME/CFS or Fibromyalgia or long covid, but it’s for everyone so we all can get awareness!! Thank you Mr. Bear Lawrence for writing this outstanding book.
November 28, 2022
Thank you Dr. Bear Lawrence for writing this amazing book and making us all aware about ME CFS, fibromyalgia and long covid. Your past stories, experiences and historical insights are so inspiring and heart touching. All my support and prayers are with you. I hope you get more recognition and be on the top. You’ve really written an outstanding book. More power to you!
Thankyou @mbooktours & @bearlawrenceauthor
Thankyou @mbooktours & @bearlawrenceauthor
November 25, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed "Bear with ME". Lawrence finds a way to weave humor and sincerity into a narrative that otherwise could have been very dark. As someone who suffers from ME, I can attest to the challenges that appear in the book. I am very grateful that Bear Lawrence is doing all he can to raise awareness about this devastating disease.
October 19, 2022
Am I an "Awarenessist"? I am now!!!!
I have not suffered from Long Covid, Fibromyalgia, or ME/CFS. However, this book has opened my eyes and given me a greater understanding and insight into what people who suffer from any of these chronic conditions go through. Bear's story is brilliantly told, and has certainly made me an "Awarenessist". Read this book and I believe you will become one also. Thank you for the "insider" knowledge Bear.
I have not suffered from Long Covid, Fibromyalgia, or ME/CFS. However, this book has opened my eyes and given me a greater understanding and insight into what people who suffer from any of these chronic conditions go through. Bear's story is brilliantly told, and has certainly made me an "Awarenessist". Read this book and I believe you will become one also. Thank you for the "insider" knowledge Bear.
June 17, 2023
The real story of ME
Mr Lawrence is a reasonable voice in a forum I’m in. He talks of his experiences and I find myself nodding along with what he says, exclaiming “Yes! That!”
There is some repetition of sections here as it’s a collection of articles and given the consequences of ME, this is no bad thing. Read an article here and there, those of us that suffer the terrible brain fog need the reminders so please don’t be negative when you read the same quote as a previous chapter because actually that can be the point.
The addition that truly makes this a very readable book rather than just a collection of articles is the anecdotes behind the articles. You glimpse a life that was prior to the life that is and for many of with ME, Mr Lawrence could be describing all our lives (if we learned to fly helicopters!)
And in amongst it is a subtle humour. A humour that will still make you smile even if you’re crying and that’s something to remember. Happiness is still available to those of us who are chronically ill, we just might need to look for it in different places.
Thank you, Bear, for sharing your story and for making more of us Awarenessists.
Mr Lawrence is a reasonable voice in a forum I’m in. He talks of his experiences and I find myself nodding along with what he says, exclaiming “Yes! That!”
There is some repetition of sections here as it’s a collection of articles and given the consequences of ME, this is no bad thing. Read an article here and there, those of us that suffer the terrible brain fog need the reminders so please don’t be negative when you read the same quote as a previous chapter because actually that can be the point.
The addition that truly makes this a very readable book rather than just a collection of articles is the anecdotes behind the articles. You glimpse a life that was prior to the life that is and for many of with ME, Mr Lawrence could be describing all our lives (if we learned to fly helicopters!)
And in amongst it is a subtle humour. A humour that will still make you smile even if you’re crying and that’s something to remember. Happiness is still available to those of us who are chronically ill, we just might need to look for it in different places.
Thank you, Bear, for sharing your story and for making more of us Awarenessists.
March 18, 2023
Particularly useful for anyone diagnosed or suffering from ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia or Long Covid.
Especially insightful for the carers, friends and family of those diagnosed or suffering.
An important read for ALL Medical Practitioners.
Especially insightful for the carers, friends and family of those diagnosed or suffering.
An important read for ALL Medical Practitioners.
February 8, 2024
Helps the reader understand the real struggles faced by sufferers of these conditions. Bear is doing an amazing job at raising awareness
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews