Ethan Wilson

20/05/2025

This year received a for its outstanding British contribution to cinema, through the dedicated in-hospital cinemas it provides, at no cost to the NHS, or patients.

Recently the award, on its tour around each of the MediCinema hospitals, made its way to Glasgow. Getting up close and personal with holding something like this in your own hands, isn’t something that happens often. It’s heavier than I expected. It’s also surprisingly challenging to figure out how to hold without covering it.

Being part of the MediCinema family has been a weekly highlight for me for over nine years. The other volunteers, the nurses, the managers, and the wider staff at HQ, all feel like an extended family. Over the hundreds of screenings I have been to, I have met so many wonderful children, young people, and their friends/families, who have all moved me in their own ways.

No matter how my week is going, where my health is at, or what is happening in my life, knowing the massive difference those few hours off ward makes to the patients, I always leave a screening feeling that my heart is full of joy. It truly is possible to 🩶🤍

12/05/2025

Today, the 12th of May, marks ME/CFS International Awareness Day each year. In August 2023, I had a confirmation of a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. This was something I had first asked about way back in 2011! It was a struggle to get to where I am now, and get a diagnosis, after it being written off each time I tried.

ME/CFS is a highly debilitating thing to live with, but is still largely not understood. When I tell people that I have ME/CFS, I’m usually met with belittling and patronising comments.

Brushed aside by remarks that they’re tired, and sore, too. Told that I don’t look like I’m chronically ill. Joked at if I ask for them to walk slower, to leave a bit earlier to get to something, to take the lift instead of stairs.

I have become really good at masking. What they don’t see, is the aftermath of that. The entire day on the edge of tears to push through it. The crash that comes when the mask is removed, because invariably I have overdone it. The days where I can only get out of bed to p*e. The days where I can’t lift a boiled kettle to make a coffee. The needing to sit and rest after having a shower. The countless things I have had to stop doing, or become unable to do. The hobbies, activities, goals, and friends I have lost through it all.

It’s a sense of loss I wasn’t prepared for having to reckon with. Largely, I think, fuelled by that internal narrative that maybe people are right, and if I just tried harder, I could still of all of those things.

Anyway, to mark today, I’ve written a first post on my blog about my experience adapting to life with ME/CFS, if you’re interested. I’ll write a few more exploring life with ME/CFS things too, when I have the energy and headspace for it.

🔗 https://ethanwilson.scot/2025/05/12/living-with-me-cfs-my-personal-journey-to-diagnosis/

12/05/2025

Today, the 12th of May, is the International ME/CFS Awareness Day. To mark it, I wanted to open up and more fully share, my own experience of living with ME/CFS, for the first time. Spoiler alert: I have ME/CFS. It is debilitating and awful, and has meant a lot of changes in my life. But the story of how I got to where I am now, begins over 12 years before being officially diagnosed....

Today, the 12th of May, is the International ME/CFS Awareness Day. To mark it, I wanted to open up and more fully share, my own experience of living with ME/CFS, for the first time. Spoiler alert: …

05/04/2025

It was a delight to attend the BMA Medical Students Conference again this year, and a privilege to have served another session on the Agenda Committee.

Seeing familiar faces of students I have come to know from schools around the UK, and meeting new faces, of whom many were attending their first .students conference, continues to be a wonderfully unique professional networking opportunity.

My social battery is realistically now exhausted for the remainder of the quarter, and my physical battery will need at least a week to recharge. But I am still grateful for being able to have attended.

Juggling medical school as a disabled student with chronic health issues, and as a mature student with so many other things in life to contend with, is challenging at best, and utterly debilitating at usual.

Having adequate support is vital, and it is always refreshing to attend events, where I do actually feel supported and validated. Conference was, I think, a huge success. I’m exceptionally proud of the delegates, and equally so of the wider student group, who were all on top form.

I can’t wait to do conference all over again next year, once I’m recharged. Some faces I will no doubt see there again, and for those who will have graduated and will be out there as doctors - congratulations, keep in touch! But, for now, it’s the long journey back home where I can then crawl into bed and not move for a few days…

02/03/2025

35 🎂

Let’s pretend I’ve said something motivational and inspiring to mark my birthday and turning 35. That’s probably more appealing than the existential crisis, receding thinning hairline, and utter sense of floundering chaos that I’m actually feeling.