A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO BOUGHT A CALENDAR, THEY WERE INCREDIBLY SUCCESSFUL :) WE HAVE A FEW LEFT IF YOU'D LIKE TO GRAB ONE - WE JUST ASK THAT YOU PAY FOR POSTAGE OR MAKE A SMALL DONATION
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'ME & CFS Friends' are a group of people whose lives have been affected by illness, whether as patients or as family carers. We are not a 'formal' group, such as a charity or organisation and we have never met in person - our friendships have been formed online.
This little group and website was formed for the purpose of supporting a speaking tour to Australia by Dr. Byron Hyde (see 'Current Project' page) - one off the world's most knowledgeable medical specialists and most thorough diagnosticians in this field of illness. In creating this site, we hope that we, our fellow sufferers and the physicians who treat us may become better informed about appropriate and necessary testing and treatment in our important search for the best possible diagnosis and health management. We feel there is potentially much to be gained from Dr. Hyde's knowledge and experience and hope that his visit will contribute to improving the standard of professional medical care we all receive. For more information on Dr. Hyde and his work please go to the 'Dr. Byron Hyde' link.
We have intentionally chosen not to use the commonly employed term 'ME/CFS' as we do not support the implication that these two illnesses are necessarily the same. While we have each received diagnoses such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia (FM) and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), all of us in this group strongly suspect that we have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), which is classified with the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a discrete neurological condition. We also all recognise, however, that this is a very complex and contentious area and that regardless of which diagnosis we have been given or which illness we believe ourselves to have, we - i.e: the broader illness community - are all in this together. We all have something to gain from improved quality in testing, diagnosis and treatment. So with our name we hope to make distinctions while also being as inclusive as possible to all those in these illness categories.
Energy permitting, after this project is over we may choose to move onto another - we'll see!
Sincerely,
ME & CFS Friends.