Invest
in ME have continued with preparation for ME Awareness Month 2011
events, based around the 6th Invest in ME International ME/CFS
Conference on 20th May. Treading water is not the way to continue so
we have tried to break new ground as best we can with our limited
resources.
Here
are brief details of already planned events as well as some newly
publicised events.
Meeting Between IiME
Researchers and UK MPs in Parliament
We have been planning
for many weeks a meeting between some of the researchers at the
Invest in ME International ME/CFS Conference and MPs. Following
assistance from one of our supporters, a constituent of Annette
Brooke MP (who is currently chair of the All Party Parliamentary
Group for ME (APPG) ), we have been working with Annette's office to
organise a special meeting on 19th May in parliament with the MPs
who are part of the APPG, and other MPs who are interested in ME.
A party of Invest in
ME researchers will attend this meeting and we hope will allow a
better understanding of the biomedical research possibilities and
the obstacles which prevent proper science from being performed (click
here).
We are not expecting
miracles from this meeting. We are hoping to educate the new APPG
MPs about our views as our inputs in the past to such forums have
been ignored (click
here). It is not our intention to tread water. There is an
opportunity for MPs to hear directly from credible researchers and
from us - so we made it happen. Education regarding ME is the key to
making progress.
Corridor Conference -
A Researchers' Meeting
This year, instead of
repeating our roundtable discussion with researchers which appeared
on our 2010 DVD (click
here) we have tried to do something different, and hopefully
more productive for progress for ME research. We know that some of
the most interesting and useful discussions come not from
presentations at conferences but instead from side meetings in the
corridors during breaks. We have organised a meeting between
researchers in order to foster better cooperation and collaboration.
We have assembled 20 researchers and scientists from seven different
countries, from USA, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Australia and
UK and provided a provisional agenda which we hope will produce
better understanding and future collaborative ventures. This meeting
follows on from the recent ME Symposium in Brisbane, Australia.
This event will not
be filmed, even though we would have liked to do so. We wish to
provide the best environment possible for researchers to discuss
openly and freely and this will not happen if they need to be on
guard.
Researchers meet
infrequently. With a disease such as ME it is incumbent on
researchers to put aside personal ambition and status and work
together. We, the patients and carers, need this to happen and we'll
do whatever we can to support collaborative projects which achieve
rapid progress for the benefit of all.
We hope to have news
of the meeting after the conference.
Pre-Conference
Evening - Science, Politics and ME
Hillary Johnson and
Dr Ian Gibson have unique views of the politics which have affected
science, and in particular ME. Our attempt to focus on this subject
forms the basis of this transatlantic view of science and politics
in action.
More details
click here.
We shall be filming
this event for inclusion of the conference DVD.
The 6th Invest in ME
International ME/CFS Conference 2011
The conference is
sold out and has almost twenty countries represented (see
here).
A new addition to the
conference line-up is Professor Geoffrey Burnstock who will present
on Purinergic Signalling in CNS Disorders. We agree that Professor
Burnstock may well provide an important line of thinking - he is a
renowned scientist already having created three paradigm shifts and
we hope this will be another breaking of new ground for ME research.
Post-Conference
Meeting with Researchers and EMEA
Invest in ME have
organised a post-conference wash-up with the conference presenters
and EMEA members with a meeting after the conference to discuss
fall-out from the conference and future collaboration.
The European ME
Alliance AGM and Planning Meeting
EMEA is meeting after
the conference and we are about to welcome new members from Holland
and Italy - thus making the number of European countries represented
eleven. EMEA will be planning new campaigns and research activities.
EMEA member Norway has broken new ground in the ME world with their
long time leader, Ellen Piro, having been awarded the King of
Norway's silver medal for her services for the ME cause. Ellen has
been a steadfast campaigner for the correct perception of ME.
Other Awareness Month
Items
We have previously
mentioned our full page advert in London Business Matters - the
magazine of the London Chamber of Commerce (see
here).
We have also offered
the IIMEC6 conference DVD for an early bird price during the month of
May (click
here).
Lost Voices is on
offer during May when sponsored for a healthcare professional (click
here).
The Journal of IiME
is published in May and serves as part of each delegate's conference
pack. It will be published
here.
We
have tried to get as much as possible from the opportunity which the
IiME conference brings to ME Awareness Month. Treading water is a
strategy which serves no one but those who wish to have no progress.
Let's break new ground where we can.
