[cigsstorenick]

Can she walk to the shops? Can she watch TV and surf the internet and go to the toilet by herself? How does any of her afflictions stop her doing a menial desk job a few days a week?

She can't walk to the shops alone as she also suffers from "absent fits" or seizures.

She can sit and watch TV, but only for 20 minutes or so as she then has to stand to relieve the pressure on her spine.

She can do most other things, but needs help with cooking and other kitchen duties as she occasionally drops things and there is a risk of scalding herself because of these problems.

She couldn't sit at a desk for more than those 20 minutes because of the pain to her back and legs.

The ATOS nurse that did the medical with her, was not trained or fully aware of the issues surrounding her with regards to the CFS/ME, Fibromyalgia, etc.

She definitely wants to work and so do I, this past year has been the first year in the past 25 years that I haven't worked and I hate it.

She and I have been through hell this past year, we've both suffered depression, her's worse than mine, due to various things going on in our lives, we both entered into a debt relief order last march due to our ex's in our marriages leaving us with nearly £20K debt, so we've both really been through the mill this last year and the ATOS medical was the last straw, being told that we were both pretty much nothing but "scroungers" when its obvious we both suffer from long term illnesses that are not about to just get better.

I can understand ATOS wanting to root out the benefit scroungers like the alcoholics and druggies on DLA, but those tossers don't want to work, we do, and we both hate being on benefits, but at the moment we don't have a choice.