Emerge Australia Ambassador • Actor • Writer • Producer • Patient-Advocate
Eliza Charley is best known for The Fort (2022), Time Apart (2020) and award-winning shorts The Falling and Sweat. Yet behind the camera she has spent 15 years negotiating life with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) after a post-viral crash in 2009. Her lived experience – combined with a storyteller’s eye and scientist parents (Prof Ros Gleadow FAA and Prof Andy Gleadow AO) – now drives her global advocacy for ME, POTS and Long COVID from her home in Florence.
“I was harmed by graded exercise therapy in Australia. I was worse when I completed the program. By finding support online I finally learned more about ME and started to rebuild.”
In this episode Eliza unpacks:
- why ditching graded-exercise and CBT was her turning-point
- pacing with heart-rate monitors and cognitive “immobilisation” to curb PEM
- treating “the tangled ball of string” symptom-by-symptom – sleep, POTS, immune and micro-clot strategies from saline to HELP apheresis
- the stigma doctors face when they publicly treat ME and Long COVID patients
- how film, science and policy can converge to give our community a louder voice
“Without a cure or approved specific medicines, treatment can be like a tangled ball of string. Find the end of the string that is most accessible to you or your patient and start there.”
Whether you are newly diagnosed, caring for someone with severe ME, or campaigning for research, Eliza’s roadmap of realism and hope makes this a must-listen.
We are delighted to share Emerge Australia Ambassador Bloom with her rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine to open and close our podcasts.
