Getting to know Emily Maguire

Singer-songwriter Emily Maguire is a real Fibro success story.

Originally trained as a cellist and pianist, when Fibro struck her down Emily taught herself guitar from Bob Marley songbooks and started writing songs about life and the world outside her window.

Years later, back on her feet and fed up with grey skies and concrete, she gave up her flat in London for a shack in the Australian bush where she recorded and released her debut album ‘Stranger Place’ to critical acclaim by the Australian media.

Further success has followed and last year Emily was offered the chance to tour the UK and Ireland with legendary singer-songwriter Don McLean. From playing pubs and folk clubs, suddenly Emily found herself on stage at some of the biggest concert halls in the country, including the Royal Albert Hall at the end of October. This year she played on the acoustic stage at Glastonbury. Her second album 'Keep Walking' - financed by making and selling goats cheese on the farm in Australia - is available to buy from HMV and Virgin megastores in the UK & Ireland as well as from Emily's website.

FibroAction founder Lindsey Middlemiss was given the opportunity to interview Emily and learn a little more about her experiences with Fibro.

Lindsey: Emily, would you mind telling me a bit about your experience with Fibro?

Emily: I developed Fibro as a teenager, when I was 16 or 17, after a car crash. I was originally diagnosed with arthritis and it took 3 years before I got a Fibro diagnosis.

The major thing with Fibro is that when you've got it there seems no end to it. I just lived with it: ten years with constant pain. I wasn't able to work or go to University or anything like that. I felt like my life was over.

I was getting treatment at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath and they were very helpful with getting me physio. They also put me on a low dose of amitriptyline, which I still use to help me sleep. But I was still in pain.

When I was 27, 10 years after developing Fibro, I went to see a consultant rhematologist called Dr Peter Fisher at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital. With Fibro, you try everything and for me, homeopathy was the last in a long list of things I tried. Dr Fisher gave me a treatment and a month later, the pain had gone.

One other thing that helped to change things for me was that, when I was ill and stuck at home for months on end, I started writing music. It turned the illness into a real blessing in disguise: what could have been a very negative experience became positive.

The Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases NHS Foundation Trust is a Specialist Hospital in the centre of Bath with an international reputation for research, expertise in complex rehabilitation and rheumatology. There are outpatient coping courses for ME/CFS and Fibro patients, as well as intensive residential pain management courses for highly disabled, complex chronic pain sufferers.

The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital is the leading centre for complementary medicine in the NHS and provides a range of complementary therapies, including: acupuncture, phytotherapy/herbal medicine, spinal manipulation, autogenic training as well as homeopathy and others. Peter Fisher is now clinical director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, and homeopath to Her Majesty the Queen.

Lindsey: Do you get any symptoms now or do you consider yourself to be cured?

Emily: I think of myself as cured but in talking to other people with the condition, I really stress the fact that I was doing all the things you should do [to help manage Fibro] before - exercise, pacing, keeping stress levels down, taking something to help sleep (a low dose of amitriptyline in my case) and thinking positively. Without any of those things, I don't think the homeopathy would have worked. I continue to do all of those things and if I stopped doing any of them, then I would get ill very quickly. Even now, if I get really stressed or don't sleep well, then the pain starts to come back.

I look after myself a lot better now through being ill. For years I resisted making changes in my life. I wanted someone to give me a pill and that be it, but I realised that I had to take responsibility for my own health.

Lindsey: You talk about keeping stress levels down: do you find it hard to do that when you're on tour or recording? The music industry has a reputation for people "burning out".

Emily: Yes! I have to be very self-disciplined about it, especially in doing my meditation. I've been doing meditation for a few years now - I'm a Buddhist - and I find it incredibly helpful for clearing my head at the beginning and end of the day. I find a routine is needed, even if my home routine is disrupted [when on tour].

Lindsey: A lot of people are sceptical about homeopathy: what do you think about it?

Emily: Some people say that homeopathic treatments are just placebos. I don't care what it was, whether it was a placebo or something more: the pain went away and that's enough for me.

Lindsey: You're a very positive role model, especially for younger people with Fibro: not only are you suceeding, both professionally and in getting control of your health, but you seem to have a very positive and proactive outlook.

Emily: Getting your mind as positive as possible is important and it's a part of taking responsibility for your own health. You have to think "Okay, that was hard, but I learnt this, did that.." and it can become very positive.

When I was 20, I was feeling pretty desperate: mostly stuck at home and using walking sticks, feeling like my life was over. Then something clicked in my head and I thought "I can still do something". That's when I started learning guitar - I got one for my 21st birthday - and writing songs and a whole new world opened up.

Fibro can be an opportunity to change your life, to find something creative that you love doing.

Having been touring as a support act for the last year, Emily will be doing her first headline gig on October 16th at Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush, London. For more information, see emilymaguire.com.