Thank you so much Penicuik Rotary Club for inviting me to speak to your club about Lyme disease and my novel Finding Joy – via zoom. I had a great time speaking to you all and your kind feedback has made my week! Read what they had to say below.
Iain Steven – Club Secretary, Rotary Club of Penicuik
Morven gave a talk on Lyme disease to a Zoom meeting of the Rotary Club of Penicuik on 7th July 2020. I joined the meeting early and Morven was already there, chatting to the host and a few other club members. It was clear from the outset that Morven was a people person; I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking that that augured well for the talk.
I was not mistaken. She began by reading the first page of her book, Finding Joy, the story of a young girl – the “Joy” of the title – who contracted Lyme disease in her early teens. Based on Morven herself, Joy suffers a series of life experiences which no young girl should have to endure. The disease, it emerges, is notoriously difficult to diagnose, having as it does an array of widely varied symptoms, each of which can characterize other illnesses.
Morven went on to explain the science of Lyme disease and its transmission, always with the sense of both respect for and resentment of the disease, which comes of having had it for fourteen years. We were left in no doubt that we did not want this disease. Nor do we now have any excuse for falling victim to it, given the clarity and intensity of Morven’s accounts of where, when and how infected ticks transmit it, as well as how to deal with them and what to do if the worst happens.
All in all, the consensus was that we left the meeting better informed, more sympathetic to Lyme disease sufferers, and slightly obsessed with ticks. I took a phone call as I neared the end of writing the last paragraph. When I told the caller, another club member, what I was doing, he said that since that night he is much more aware when out walking of where he is, and of what else might be there. I think Morven would be pleased to hear that.
Iain Steven
Club Secretary, Rotary Club of Penicuik
