Wear blue for ME during ME Awareness week

WAMES invites people with ME, their friends and family to raise awareness of ME by wearing blue ribbons or items of blue clothing during ME Awareness week.

Sharon Price invites you to join her in raising funds for WAMES

Please help me raise funds for WAMES

On 29th April 2011, I will have had ME for 20 years. (Yep, a Bank Holiday has been declared in my honour!) I want to do something positive to mark the occasion. I am volunteering with the Welsh Association of ME & CFS Support (WAMES) and am supporting their campaign for ME Awareness week 2011 to wear something blue on May 12th, which is International ME Awareness day. Please join me in:

• Wearing an item of blue clothing such as a tie, cravat, scarf, blouse, skirt or other item of clothing to help raise awareness of ME.
• wear a Blue Ribbon (contact BRAME, Sharon or Jan if you don’t have one)
• ask family members, friends and colleagues to join you wearing blue ribbons
• Tell people why you are wearing blue and what the blue ribbons represent

Please would you be kind enough to not only wear blue on May 12th, but also to pay for the privilege and make a donation to WAMES? WAMES is a voluntary organisation which gives a national voice to people with ME & CFS in Wales, campaigning and raising awareness on our behalf.

If you would like to contribute, please send a cheque payable to:

Sharon Price 10, Hill Crest, Langland, Swansea, SA3 4PW

Or to the WAMES treasurer.

When I have received all your donations, I will send one (hopefully big) cheque to WAMES with the total donated. I am aiming to raise £400. (£20 for each year I’ve had ME). Apologies for fundraising again, but I haven’t done so since 2009!

Hopefully in 20 years’ time, the world for people with ME will be a very different place and people will no longer have to go through the intolerable pain and suffering I have.

THANK YOU so very much in anticipation of your help and support.

Love Sharon. xx

WAMES’ patron Lord Barry Jones sends ME Awareness week message of support

Lord Barry Jones has been WAMES’ patron since our inception 10 years ago. During his 40+ years as a politician he has been moved by many encounters with people who have ME and their families. Now in the House of Lords he continues to live in his native Deeside and sends a message of support to WAMES on our 10th birthday

WAMES is 10 years old!

WAMES was set up by local support groups in April 2001 to improve services for people with ME and CFS in Wales. Progress has been slow but 10 years on people with ME and their carers haven’t given up hope and have a vision for a better life in Wales for all affected by ME.

Welsh care pathway for CFS/ME published but Map of Medicine dropped

Plans to make the new Welsh care pathway for CFS/ME available to health professionals through the Map of Medicine database has been scrapped by the Health Minister Edwina Hart. Budgetary cuts have led to the subscription for the MoM being dropped but all care pathways will be available to the NHS through the HOWIS e-library. WAMES responded to the consultation as the patients’ representative but cannot recommend the final care pathway. It fails to give sufficient information to help doctors identify neurological ME and does not highlight the limited usefulness and possible dangers of CBT and GET as treatments fort all patients.

Dr Nigel Speight joins WAMES as medical adviser

WAMES is delighted to welcome retired paediatrician Dr Nigel Speight to join WAMES as a medical advisor.

WAMES is awarded £5,000 for awareness campaign

WAMES is delighted to have been awarded a £5000 Awards for all Wales grant from the Big Lottery Fund for our campaign which starts in October entitled Information for all. The aim of the campaign is to improve the nature and availability of information for patients, carers and professionals about the neurological condition ME. Some of the information will be bilingual and be downloadable from our new website.

Health Minister tells LHBs to develop services for people with CFS/ME

The Minister for Health and Social Services accepted the recommendations of the Task & Finish Group on CFS/ME in Wales report.  Local Health Boards have been asked to begin implementing the recommendations with immediate effect. The report and her response are available on the WAG website. Read WAMES’ statement .