AN ELDERLY woman afflicted with the debilitating auto-immune disease encephalitis has renewed hope that she can recover after reading about fellow sufferer Lucy Thomas in The Forester.

Shirley Symonds was diagnosed with the illness in December 2012 and her husband Harold told of how hearing Lucy's story helped them to believe Shirley could make a full recovery.

"It would be something incredible but we are hopeful again that at some point she will get better and hopefully it will go into remission," Harold said.

For the full story, read The Forester.