My name is Charlie Gee, I am 58 years old and I live in Yorkshire, England. I suppose if I had to describe myself I would say I am an unreformed ageing hippy. I have had long hair since the advent of the Beatles. I started out a redhead but now it is more white than red. I still have quite a lot of hair. If at the age of 20 they had told me how much hair I would have when I reached 58 I must admit I would have been quite pleased.

My musical tastes are varied. I still have a soft spot for psychedelic music Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead etc. but my favourites would have to be Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. The reason for this would be because I have met him on three occasions.

It is ironic that Captain Beefheart should have featured so prominently in my formative years because he has multiple sclerosis and in 1997 I was diagnosed with the same thing.

At the moment I am confined to a wheelchair. I know it sounds a pretty rotten existence and if somebody had told me 10 years ago that this would be my lot I think I would have freaked but my situation isn't as bad as it sounds. I try to look on it like this I have a sick note for life and all my time is my own.

I frequent a website, The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre and they have a message board there which is usually fun. I spend a lot of my time trying to write stories and plays. About three years ago my arms found it very difficult to type and it was quite worrying to think that one of my main sources of enjoyment would soon be no more. I started to use voice recognition software and was quite impressed by how accurate it was. Because I was so impressed I decided I wanted to share my discovery with others who are in the same situation as me so I wrote about it on the Message board. I tried to make it as entertaining as possible. The MSRC have a magazine called New Pathways and the editor, Judy Graham was told about what I had written and she asked me to write about it in the magazine. In the article I mentioned how I would like to write and Judy asked me if I had any short stories. Since then I have been contributing short stories to the magazine on a regular basis.I also compile a cryptic crossword for them. It only comes out six times a year so I am not overwhelmed by work.

My website http://lotties.brainiac.com/ceegee

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