Artist Kate Kennington Steer, who was diagnosed with ME aged 17 in 1990, is staging an exhibition at Farnham Pottery throughout July.

Kate first picked up a camera in 1980 and quickly added pencil drawing, painting, poetry, thread work and yarn work to her range of creative outlets.

But her condition led to chronic illness, depression and unexplained periods of paralysis, when she got ‘ground down like a clockwork toy running out of energy’.

Life came to an abrupt stop as she lost the use of her legs or arms, or had muscle spasms, for several hours. In all of these types of seizure she lost the ability to speak for at least some of the time.

By her 30s Kate no longer saw herself as a creative person, depression turned her vision of life into one of short-term survival, and acute exhaustion combined with a feeble immune system often left her housebound for weeks at a time.

But in 2010 a combined team of experts from mental health and social services found Farnham charity Creative Response and secured funding for her to attend a weekly art session lasting between two and three hours at Cranleigh Arts Centre. These sessions rapidly became Kate’s lifeline as she received the support of astute, encouraging and knowledgeable art workers and art therapists.

Kathryn McManus, chief executive of Creative Response, said: “All of the Creative Response community is absolutely delighted for Kate that she will have her first solo exhibition at Farnham Pottery in July.

“It will be a really exciting opportunity to see Kate’s digital paintings, which are being exhibited for the first time. I’m very grateful to Guy Hains and his brilliant team at the pottery for hosting this exhibition, and for all their ongoing support for the vital work of Creative Response.”