List of people with chronic fatigue syndrome

This is a list of people diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Name	Occupation	Nationality	Notes
Michelle Akers[1]	Former Olympic soccer player, who starred in the historic 1991 and 1999 Women's World Cup victory by the U.S.. She won the Golden Boot as the top scorer in the 1991 tournament. She is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.	American	In 1991, Michelle Akers was named the best woman soccer player in the world and had become the first woman player to have a paid endorsement. Yet after leading her team to victory for the first FIFA Women's Soccer World Championship in China, Akers returned home completely exhausted. She rested and changed her diet. However, as time progressed, the fatigue headaches, gastrointestinal imbalance and metabolism problems progressed as well. Two years after the initial symptoms began, Akers collapsed during a game at the Olympic Sports Festival in San Antonio, Texas. Diagnoses progressed from mononucleosis to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and finally, in the spring of 1994, to Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFIDS).[2]
Paul Atherton[3]	Film /Television Producer	British	First director to have film shown on a billboard at Piccadilly Circus, London
Natalie Blair[4]	Actress	Australian	Played Carmella Caminetti in Neighbours
Howard Bloom[5]	Rock and roll publicist and writer	American	Named as one of the ten famous individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome in the For Dummies book on CFS
Olaf Bodden[6]	Professional soccer player	German
Cher[7]	Recording artist, actress, director, and record producer.	American	In 1992, Cher took some time off from her career and it was widely reported that the virus was responsible. “My experience was it was really a physical illness but it does make you depressed as well,” she told the BBC. “It’s a virus you have it’s called Epstein Barr virus and the disease it gives you is chronic fatigue.” “Boy, it was devastating for me…I wasn’t able to work for almost three years,” the singer added.[7]	Tom Clarke[8]	Politician	British	Labour Member of Parliament for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill.
Neil Codling[9]	keyboard player	British	Member of the band Suede	Clare Francis[10]	Yachtswoman and novelist	British	Tessa Crockett[11]
Leigh Hatcher[12]	Journalist and news presenter	Australian	Leigh wrote the book titled I’m Not Crazy, I’m Just A Little Unwell - relating his experience with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
Susan Harris[13]	Television writer and producer	American	Incorporated her experiences with CFS into the fifth season of The Golden Girls
Laura Hillenbrand[14]	Author	American	Wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend, the basis for the film Seabiscuit during a 16-year struggle with illness. Hillenbrand also published an essay about chronic fatigue syndrome titled "A Sudden Illness" in The New Yorker, July 7, 2003, p. 56[15]
Andy Hunt[16]	Association footballer, Played for West Bromwich Albion and Charlton Athletic.	British	Forced to retire early from football during the 2000–01 season aged 30, “I was like a zombie,” he said. It turned out he had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Hunt now runs the Belize Jungle Dome and Green Dragon Adventure Travel, a pair of adventure travel companies in Belize, with his wife, former MTV presenter Simone Angel.
Keith Jarrett[17]	Jazz pianist	American	A Google search for 'Keith Jarrett chronic fatigue syndrome' gives links to several of his interviews talking about the effect the disease had on him and his music.
Leonard A. Jason[18]	Director of Center for Community Research, DePaul University.[19] Major areas of interest: CFS, Oxford Houses, Smoking and Prevention, Media Interventions, Children and TV, Community Psychology, Community Building [20]	American
Martin Lev[21]	Actor	British	Former president of Action for ME, committed suicide in 1992
Peter Marshall[22]	Squash player	British	The former world No 2 squash player was at his peak when hit by CFS. He was given the choice between a £250,000 insurance payout or a comeback. He chose the latter and made it back into the world’s top ten.
Brooks Mileson[23]	Businessman	British	Former owner of Gretna F.C.
Sophia Mirza[24]		British	First person in the United Kingdom whose death was attributed to CFS
Andrew Oldcorn[25]	Golfer	British
Martin Phillips[16]	Association footballer	British	Played for Manchester City and Portsmouth club
David Puttnam[26]	British film maker and producer	British	Producer of Chariots of Fire. Chair and CEO of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988.
Ali Smith[27]	Author	British
Naomi Weisstein[28]	Author and neuroscientist	American
Paul Flynn[29]	Author	Irish
Pema Chödrön[30]	Buddhist nun ordained in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in 1981 and a teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa.	American	In 1994, after experiencing years of baffling, undiagnosable symptoms, she was found to be suffering from chronic fatigue–immune dysfunction syndrome as well as environmental illness. The following year, she undertook a long-term course of healing, beginning with a year off. In hindsight, she considers her illness to be an event of major significance: "It required me to simplify my life, a very sane thing to do." Her discomfort became a source of compassion, "a heartfelt connection with all those unknown people" suffering similarly or much more than her. "Life has taught me the wisdom of moving toward what scares me," she concludes.[30]
Laura Dundovic[31]	Former Miss Universe Australia, host of Foxtel's Dating in the Dark.	Australian	"I have chronic fatigue - it began when I was 15, I got glandular fever and I've been worn out since. They thought I had Hodgkin's lymphoma (at first), and that was very worrying. During my HSC (year) I would study during lunchtime because I couldn't stay awake at night. This carried on for years and just before I did Miss Universe, I hit rock bottom." She said she was sleeping up to 10 hours a day before taking part in the pageant.[31]
Ken Wilber[32]	Author who has written about adult development, developmental psychology, philosophy, worldcentrism, ecology, and stages of faith. His work formulates what he calls Integral Theory.[33] In 1998, he founded the Integral Institute, for teaching and applications of Integral theory.[34]	American	Began having seizures on December 5, 2006, was diagnosed with RNase Enzyme Deficiency Disease (REDD)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Stating: "When the intensive care doctors asked me what I thought it was, the first thing I always said was that we can't rule out the most obvious: it comes with the territory of CFIDS/REDD/ME. In fact, the reason that this illness is often referred to as M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) is that, as one of its leading authorities, Byron Hyde M.D., put it, "By definition, all M.E. patients will have some level of seizure activity as part of their illness." And as for types of seizure activity, a standard comprehensive guide to M.E. lists them as: "simple partial seizures, petite mal seizures, and grand mal seizures.""[32]
Stevie Nicks[35]	American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums.	American	Diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1987.[35]
Flea (musician)[36]	Bassist, trumpet player, and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist and co-founding member of the alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers.	Australian-American	Flea was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1993.[36]
Blake Edwards[37]	Film director, screenwriter and producer. Writer of the Pink Panther series and Breakfast at Tiffany's	American	He described his struggle with the illness chronic fatigue syndrome for 15 years in the documentary I Remember Me.[38]
Ricky Carmichael[39]	Motocross racer, now transitioning to a stock car career. He currently drives the #4 Monster Energy Chevrolet Silverado for Turner Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series. His unrivaled successes in the sport of Motocross have given him the nickname "The GOAT", standing for Greatest of All Time.	American	Carmichael was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in October 2007. “I’ve just felt like I’ve been running out of steam the past few months. Training has been difficult. I’ve struggled to maintain my normal pace on my road bike and though I’ve been extremely tired, I’ve had a difficult time sleeping and never really feel rested,” said Carmichael.[40]
Rich Carson[41]	Businessman and philanthropist, Founder of ProHealth, Inc.	American	In 1981 Rich Carson discovered he had a chronic illness. He began to research, experiment and develop relationships with health care practitioners to further his own health, and became determined to offer others the same resources and information. He founded ProHealth in 1988 and remains intimately involved in the research and development of the company's products, and the latest news and research related to this community. When asked what was the best advice he could give to someone with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, Carson replied, “Participate in your wellness. Stay informed; keep an open mind. Never stop trying something. Never give up!” Carson has recently launched a campaign to change the name chronic fatigue syndrome, which he feels is demeaning to patients and trivializes the seriousness of their illness. Since late July when he first mentioned his dissatisfaction with the name, he has received hundreds of letters of support. Carson said, “My favorite letter was from someone who said that calling this disease Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is like calling Parkinson's disease ‘Chronic Shakiness Syndrome’ or calling Alzheimer's disease, ‘Chronic Forgetfulness Syndrome.’” Carson is one of 'The Faces of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome' from portraits of 8 patients and 2 CFS experts. An exhibit which features photographs from renowned photographer George Lange[42][43]
Marie Curie[44]	Physicist and Chemist famous for her work on radioactivity. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes[45]—in physics and chemistry. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris.	Polish-born French	At the age of 15 Currie suffered from a what has been described as fatigue or exhaustion or nervous troubles, after graduating with honours, and as Valedictorian of her class, from high school. The illness left her feeling extremely lethargic and she spent a year recuperating in the Polish countryside.[44][46]
Florence Nightingale[47]	Celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night. Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment, in 1860, of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the world.	British	Florence Nightingale's illness began in 1896 after she returned from the Crimean War and spent years housebound, too fatigued to talk to more than one visitor at a time. Her birthday (12 May 1820) is celebrated as International CFS and Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.[47]
Charles Darwin[47][48]	English naturalist.[I] He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.	British	There have been suggestions in several medical journals such as the Lancet and British Medical Journal, that Charles Darwin may have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. When he arrived back to England after travels to South America and Pacific Islands, he started suffering from what has been described as Fatigue, pains, abdominal troubles, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, dermal problems used to flare up at times of stress such as attending meetings trying to defend his theory of evolution.[48] See also: Charles Darwin's health

See also

Category:People with chronic fatigue syndrome

References

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40. ^ Suzuki USA (October 11, 2011). "Ricky Carmichael forced to call it quits". http://insidemotorcycles.blogspot.com/2007/10/ricky-carmichael-forced-to-call-it.html. 
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