AN ARDROSSAN woman is on a mission to spread awareness about encephalitis, to help people avoid going through what she has in recent months.

Margaret McCabe was diagnosed with the illness, which can impact people’s lives in a number of ways, and says she does not believe enough people know about it.

Anyone at any age can get encephalitis and there are up to 6,000 cases in the UK each year.

The illness is an inflammation of the brain. It is caused either by an infection invading the brain (infectious encephalitis) or through the immune system attacking the brain in error (post-infectious or autoimmune encephalitis).

Those who are suffer from any form of the illness face a long and slow recovery process, as they come to terms with the remaining difficulties encephalitis brings.

There are a range of effects brought on by the illness, which include, but are not limited to: problems with daily living skills, fatigue/sleep disturbance, inability to understand, personality changes, emotional problems, physical problems and difficulty with memory.

Margaret does not suffer from all of the effects of encephalitis, though has found it difficult to adjust back to daily living on her own since she returned to Ardrossan from hospital.

She admits she has had issues with neighbours previously, though how these have affected her have amplified since her return.

She told the Herald of sleepless nights while someone nearby fed a fox right outside her bedroom window, leaving the tired and fatigued Margaret unable to sleep.

She said: “I have never cried so much in my life.

“They need to treat people with the illness with respect and dignity, and not the way they are treating me.”

Margaret admitted that the illness may have left her feeling out of sorts, and not her usual self - though this is one of the effects it can have.

She added: “They need to understand that people that have this illness are not doing the things they are because they want to.”

As she continues her recovery, Margaret says she is hoping to become a volunteer for the Encephalitis Society, you can find out more about the charity, and the illness, by visiting their website: encephalitis.info