Sussex ME sufferers hope a new report citing failures towards fellow sufferers by the health services will spark improvements in care.

The report, published by the charity Action for ME, is critical of the NHS and social services.

It has been backed by Brighton MPs David Lepper and Des Turner.

ME Sufferers Susan Gibbons and Colin Barton, who runs the Sussex ME Society, hope the report will help prevent suicides amongst those afflicted with the condition by providing them with the advice and support they need as early as possible.

They are among 4,500 ME sufferers in Sussex, 900 of whom are severely affected by the condition, which is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

Over the last few years three members of the Sussex ME Society have committed suicide in a state of despair.

After her condition was diagnosed Ms Gibbons, now 38, expected she would be back at work as a civil servant in London within a week. She had no idea she would have to give up her life as she knew it and be virtually bed bound in her parents home in Saltdean for the next eleven years.

During her worst phases Susan is often unable to lift her head from her pillow and at times she must rely on her mother to feed her.

The report reveals 65 per cent of ME sufferers who took part in a survey received no advice from their GPs on managing their illness and 33 per cent had had to wait more than 18 months before being diagnosed with ME.

51 per cent of the ME sufferers interviewed felt suicidal as a result of the pain they suffered and the lack of medical support they received, the report revealed.

Ms Gibbons said: "The NHS is failing people like me. People are committing suicide because of the illness, but the lack of medical support compounds that. The people who need help the most are ironically the people who are suffering the most. "

Colin Barton, the chairman of the Sussex ME Society who has had ME for 20 years, said: "The report highlights what it is like to be in a group of people who are often overlooked. The most severely affected are usually house bound or bed bound and their voices never get heard because of the severity of the illness.

"We don't want special treatment, we just want ME to be recognised like other neurological illnesses that are taken for granted. We want ME sufferers to receive treatment equal to that people with other recognised neurological illnesses suffer."