A woman who was bedridden for 12 years after being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome said COVID-19 lockdowns gave her the time to heal.

Shelley Cowan is taking the 'Stairway to Haven' challenge and climbing the Culicagh mountain in Co Fermanagh on April 1st.

Shelley (41) was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome or ME, when she was just 15.

She told Lunchtime Live the illness took her life away.

"I initially got the symptoms around February 6th of 1998 and by the time of Pancake Tuesday I wasn't able to lift a lemon.

"By the time I was 16 and a half I was bedbound and not able to move any muscles.

"It just took away my life really".

Ms Cowan said she was very prone to picking up viruses but was "just like any other teenager".

"I was just lying in a bed in a darkened room, I was tube fed, I couldn't move," she said.

"I was very sore, I couldn't have noise, I couldn't even have my hair washed for 10 years because I was so sore.

"It basically was just barely living, to be honest".

Michelle Cowan. Image: GoFundMe

Ms Cowan said her body was trying to naturally heal itself after a number of years.

"It was a matter of, in the hospital bed, going with one notch of the remote control up just to lift my head," she said.

"Eventually on my 28th birthday I was hoist-lifted for the first time into a chair for five minutes - so that was a very emotional day.

"That was the beginning, there was a long process to even get to that stage".

Ms Cowan then spent the next decade in a wheelchair until an electronic standing frame really helped her to improve.

"I am very grateful to the local community, they raised £6,000 for me, and they called me the Bionic Woman," she said.

"I was told to do it for 20 minutes a day but I was too stubborn, I did it for six hours.

"So, during COVID when everybody was in lockdown that's when my illness really started to ease up," she added.

Shelley is going to walk the Stairway to Heaven challenge to raise funds for Just Us, which supports adults with disabilities.

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Main image: Shelley Cowan. Image: Supplied