An hour before she was due on stage for the first show of her month-long Edinburgh fringe run, Nina Gilligan was lying in a dark room, hoping that her medication would take effect. She was experiencing an intense migraine, one of the symptoms of her chronic pain condition fibromyalgia, which affects an estimated one in 20 people, mostly women.
All month, on top of the universal fringe stresses – financial risk, career peril, social pressures – she has been dealing with an additional, invisible challenge.
