A SCHOOLGIRL who has been battling against ME for two years claims she now has to fight the "prejudice" of education chiefs.

Lena Hindley, a pupil at Thornleigh Salesian College, was diagnosed with the chronic fatigue illness when she was 14.

Now, she has been left devastated by a hard-hitting letter from the council threatening to take her parents to court.

The letter arrived at her Farnworth home just weeks before her GCSEs. It said her parents, Robert and Hilary, would face prosecution or a fine of £1,000 if they fail to see Lena goes to school.

Lena claims she has struggled to overcome the illness and deep-rooted prejudice she says she has encountered.

Experts label children with ME as the "lost children" -- because their illness is largely ignored by the adult world.

Lena is one of 24,000 children in the UK who has Myalgic Encephalopathy -- a little understood and potentially devastating illness.

The Association of Young People with ME says that youngsters as young as five ahve the symptoms.

At the height of her illness, Lena struggled to keep her eyes open. She could easily sleep all day and night.

Dad Robert, a firefighter, said: "After six months, we demanded our doctor referred her to a specialist, and she was diagnosed with ME."

Lena, aged 16, said: "I was really shocked -- but I went with the flow. I started attending the Royal Bolton Hospital two days-a-week.

"They told me how to plan my day making sure I put in rest periods.

"I was so sleepy every day and I remember this lasted for about a whole year. The Millennium Christmas was spent entirely in bed. I missed it all.

"Then things started to get better and I'd have one or two days where I could actually do things. I went back to school three days-a-week.

"But I had to stop seeing all my friends, except my best friend who used to bring me work from school so that I could catch up with what I had missed."

While most teenagers are out partying and at discos, Lena has been spending most of her time in bed -- although she admits her condition is improving.

Her strength is slowly returning, enough for her to take five GCSE exams.

A spokesman from the LEA refused to comment on individual cases.

He said the letters were standard and sent out to parents of children who had poor school attendance.

Father Mervyn Williams, headteacher at Thornleigh Salesian College , refused to comment further but said: "This is a local authority procedure."

EXPERTS say ME lasts on average between six months and six years and symptoms vary from person to person.

Some people feel so ill that they can hardly sit up in bed. Others struggle to open letters and read.

As yet, there is no cure.

The charity AYME hopes to use national ME Awareness Week, which starts today, to end social prejudice against the illness.

Jill Moss, director of AYME, said: "I am not surprised at how Lena has been treated.

"The simple fact is, it is too much like hard work for the school to treat pupils on an individual basis.

"Lena's family is like thousands across Britain, finding it hard to make institutions understand the devastating effects of ME.

"The fact that Lena has to rely on her best friend to do homework is incredible. She should be getting special arrangements to sit her exams."