Fibromyalgia: A Treatment Guide by Christine Craggs-Hinton Sheldon Press, £8.99

When Christine Craggs-Hinton was diagnosed with fibromyalgia it left her so exhausted she spent a lot of time in bed.

On the advice of her physiotherapist, she looked for ways of increasing the times she could sit up – so she took up writing.

“I bought her a typewriter then a computer, she started writing poems and short stories and it went from there,” says her husband, David. “She later set up a West Yorkshire support group for people with fibromyalgia and started doing the newsletter. That led to her putting her experiences into a book to help others. She had a way of writing that touched people and made it easy for them to understand health issues.”

Bradford-born Christine went on to write 20 books about various conditions and how people can overcome them and live healthily.

Last month. Christine died, aged 60, following a short battle with lung cancer. Her latest book, Fibromyalgia: A Treatment Guide is released this month.

Fibromyalgia, believed to affect up to 1.76 million people in the country, is a chronic pain condition which can leave sufferers incapacitated. Symptoms include fatigue, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and muscle stiffness.

“Christine always loved to write but never thought she’d get published,” says David. “When she got fibromyalgia in 1992 she had to give up work and spent a lot of time in bed. Her writing was part of how she dealt with chronic illness. It was a distraction and she found it therapeutic.”

Christine’s first book, Living With Fibromyalgia, was the first British book on the subject. She went on to write a follow-up book about the kind of diet that helps sufferers.

“I have had pain for 14 years which made it easier to write about – I can empathise with people, I can speak to them from a personal standpoint,” she told the Telegraph & Argus in 2005.

Her further books focused on a range of conditions including chronic fatigue, polycystic ovary syndrome and beating pain. Her book on eating disorders and body image was published in Japanese and Polish, and she also wrote a book about multiple sclerosis, called Living With MS.

Christine was born in Laisterdyke and grew up in Wyke. She moved to Baildon with her first husband and had three sons, Mark, James and Mathew.

Christine, who had four grandchildren and five step grandchildren, died in hospital in Santa Cruz, Tenerife, where she lived with David for the past five years.

“When she was ill we found she was so much better on holiday in warm, dry places, so in 2007 we moved to Tenerife, where the climate was just right. Her condition improved and she had five very good years there,” says David.

“Christine loved writing there and she found it very rewarding to know she was helping others through her books.”