Within my years of being hospitalised due to my chronic illness, I have spent a lot of that time being unable to move or speak. I was desperate to be able to express myself and be creative.

I realised that when my carers made me laugh, my body would uncontrollably shake. The idea came to me: what if I could using art to measure my laughter? I got my carer to balance a paintbrush in my hand with a canvas underneath it and then asked her to make me laugh.

As soon as the laughter began, my body shook and the paintbrush started to move on the canvas. I decided to call it a Laugh-O-Gram painting because it reminded me of an ECG, which measures your heart rate.

Over the next few months, I created The Laugh-O-Gram Collection whilst in hospital. I wanted to use my artwork to visually portray my suffering and also the hope that I felt for the future, despite how unwell I was. They were exhibited in the Canterbury Art Festival 2009.

Once I’d learnt how to paint through laughter, I decided to see if I could do different types of painting. All of my art was abstract to begin with and had a lot of meaning behind them. I started a different collection with all my one-off paintings, which I called An Element of Laughter. It enabled me to create really different pieces and use my story telling to make my art come to life.

After a while I decided to think about what else I’d like to do. Before I became ill, I had always wanted to travel the world. But I found myself, trapped in a bed in a world of one room. The M.E. Monster had stopped me from living the life that I wanted to, but laughter was freedom without boundaries. I decided to use my imagination to travel the world in my mind. I looked at photographs, all the different colours and I imagined what it would feel like to be there. Then I painted it.

The Freedom of Laughter Collection was born and I travelled to Africa, India, the Himalayas, Norway, Cornwall (who doesn’t love a good British coast?!)

I definitely want to try and find new places to immerse myself in, and fresh ideas to paint too!