Alan Wallace, a former youth trainer, said he had suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for 17 months.

The illness involved him having to leave his Belfast-based job and move home to his parents in Ballymena.

Alan's story comes after claims from the Elim church that a "miracle" had saved 18-year-old Andrew Duffin's life. The Belfast teenager said he died for 16 minutes in a hospital operating theatre but revived after his father, a Christian, made an international appeal for prayer.

Andrew's and Alan's cases are being seen as part of an international Pentecostal healing movement which began in Florida.

Dozens of people are now attending nightly meetings in the Elim church in Tigers Bay – led by Pastor Brian Madden.

Alan said: "I had chronic fatigue syndrome for 17 months. It was very bad. Most of the time I was in my bed and could not go out the door. On good days I could do something small, but then I would be wrecked for about three days and have to lie in bed.

"Then only a few weeks ago I heard about the healings going on at the Elim church in Belfast. I went online to see what was happening.

"The first night I went online I heard Pastor Brian Madden mention that God was calling on him to help someone with chronic fatigue syndrome, but I felt nothing. The second night I went online he said the same thing and I honestly felt something, like a tingle in my body. It was like God was touching me and I was getting more energy. I knew I had to get up to that church."

After getting in touch with a member of the Elim congregation an arrangement was made for him to be taken up to Tigers Bay the following night – Monday, June 9.

"When I got to the meeting that night it was not Pastor Brian but another preacher called Bobby Sullivan. When I got there I did not feel as drained as normal. I just felt a bit better, it was nothing major. Then when the worship started and during it I felt able to stand up, which I would not have normally been able to do.

"Then my body started to tingle with excitement. It almost started vibrating. Then the preachers asked for people who wanted healing to come up. Or if anyone felt they had been touched at all by God to come up. So I thought I would go up."

He said when he got to the stage he started to tremble again. Alan said the next day he felt "a little different and better".

"Compared to how I had felt before, I had loads more energy, but I did not have a mad energy boost. But I was able to go out for coffee that day which I could not have done before.

"I went to the service every night that week till the Friday."

Last weekend, for the first time in two years, Alan was able to go away for the weekend.

"My girlfriend and I went to Scotland for the weekend to see friends," he said.