Actor battles ME to launch movie
THERE have been days when Kirsty Strain’s ME symptoms were so bad, she has been unable to get out of bed.
But she is making up for those lost days now.
Over the coming weeks, the actress will see the seeds of her creative endeavours come to fruition with a prolific run of work including a film she conceived, wrote, directed and stars in herself.
The 37-year-old Glaswegian is best known for roles in BBC Scotland programmes such as comedy series Burnistoun and weekly drama River City.
Yet 25 years ago, she first encountered the symptoms of which would eventually lead to her being diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, also known as myalgic encephalopathy.
There is, as yet, no cure for the debilitating condition, which affects an estimated 250,000 people across the UK. Famous sufferers include former Celtic and Scotland footballer Davie Provan, actor Michael Crawford and American singer-songwriter Randy Newman.
Symptoms include severe tiredness, disordered sleep and reduced cognitive function, with many of those diagnosed rendered unable to work.
For Kirsty, coping with the illness is not so much a battle, as a daily negotiation with her compromised physiology.
The actor has adopted a holistic approach to self-care, at the centre of which lies a disciplined approach to sleep, nutrition, hydration and mental focus.
She said: “When any limitation is placed on you, you can either give into it, or you can find a work-around. There have been periods of severity when I have been bedridden and housebound, and the terrifying thing for me would have been to stay in that mindset. I had to find a way of not letting my physical situation not affect my mental health, which it obviously did for a while, because a chronic physical condition with such a heavy impact on your body is going to affect your mental health, particularly when you are housebound and bedridden because you become isolated.
“ME is still a part of my life. I’m lucky because I’m at the moderate end of the spectrum, but I have to make that negotiation on a daily basis. If you want something, then you have to find a workaround, because there are no straight lines. Especially if you’re working in the arts industry.”
Despite her diagnosis at 17, Kirsty was able to complete an HNC in drama at Langside College in Glasgow, and spent time reading at the famous Lee Strasberg Institute in New York, before returning home to Scotland.
In addition to featured roles in River City and Burnistoun, Kirsty regularly performs in theatre across the country, including a one woman tour of comedy show 52 Shades of Maggie.
Next month she’ll attend the Loch
Ness Film Festival, where her film Echoes That Remain will have its premiere.
The short film, which she financed through a successful crowdfunding drive, explores a rarely-acknowledged side to motherhood.
“I never set out to make a film, I only started writing it to explore different ways of being creative,” said Kirsty, who directed the film, and plays its lead character.
“It came after I worked on the film And Violet, which was about open adoption. It really got me thinking about challenging society’s ideas around motherhood, this expectation that all women are wired to nurture and be loving, tender, affectionate mothers. Sometimes that just doesn’t happen. So I started writing about a mother who struggles to bond with her daughter and who is stuck in a village, isolated, alone with no support, feeling guilt and shame and spiralling towards breakdown.”
Kirsty also features in Anna and the Apocalypse, a zombie comedy horror filmed in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde. Made by Glasgow indie filmmakers Blazing Griffin, it was snapped up by Hollywood film company Orion last year and will be shown at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 29.