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Chris Hunter
Alison Hunter Memorial Foundation
Australia

... You have done a truly wonderful thing for every person with ME/CFS - one of the few documents I feel very proud to distribute  - the quality of the publication brings credibility to everyone with  the disease.
 
Thankyou so much.

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Jeff Brown
East Anglia ME Patient Partnership
United Kingdom

I am very pleased to announce the availability of the acclaimed Canadian ME/CFS Consensus Document Overview that now includes, on the back cover, a new endorsement by the eminent UK National Health Service clinicians Dr. Terry Mitchell and Professor Leslie Findley:

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a common illness. Its impact on many sufferers can be profound with intrusive fatigue and multiple symptoms. The secondary burden of the condition is common to all chronic illnesses and includes impoverishment and a significant impact on personal and family life. "We recommend and endorse the Canadian Consensus Document. We regard it as an extremely important contribution to understanding the physical basis of the condition. Future research should be directed to further defining the pathophysiology of the condition together with identifying the sub groups, which undoubtedly exist, within the illness complex currently termed ME/CFS.

Dr Terry Mitchell, MA, MD, FRCPath
Consultant Haematologist. Head of Norfolk and Suffolk ME/CFS Service
NHS Clinical Champion for ME/CFS in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire
Honorary Consultant, The National ME Centre
United Kingdom

Professor L J Findley, TD, KLJ ,MD, FRCP, FACP
Consultant Neurologist. Clinical
Director, The National ME Centre
Clinical Director, Fatigue Service, Barking, Havering & Redbridge NHS Trust
United Kingdom

This endorsement by clinicians from within the NHS, who between them have been treating ME patients for over 40 years, puts the Canadian Criteria visibly and firmly into the mainstream of NHS practice.

Dr Mitchell considers the document particularly valuable in helping to focus practitioners' attention on the sub-groups within ME and on the complexities of the illness. Significantly, Dr Mitchell has furthermore decided to use some of his education budget to distribute printed copies to all primary health care practices in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The Overview will also be provided to patients who receive a referral to his clinic.

Printed copies of the A4 format Overview will be available in the UK through the East Anglia ME Patient Partnership, which has been appointed by Dr. Carruthers and Marjorie van de Sande as UK distributor. An initial print run of a several thousand copies is in progress and a website supporting online ordering is under development. In the meantime, if you are interested in printed copies please email Print@EastAnglia.ME.uk or use the web form: http://eastanglia.me.uk/Canadian.aspx#form Copies ordered from the current print run will be 43p a copy excluding delivery (230gsm colour cover, 0gsm pages, litho printed, stitched). This printing project is not-for-profit.

All primary healthcare practices in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridgeshire will be receiving a copy. Tom Kindlon and his associates are distributing copies to every GP (Primary Care Physician) in the Republic of Ireland. It would be great if other regions could follow this lead so that between us we can ensure the Overview is available in every primary healthcare practice in the British Isles. It is in all our interests that doctors have this essential diagnostic and treatment information to balance current biases within professional literature. I hope that ME groups, and perhaps other specialist clinics, can find or raise the relatively small amount of money to do this within their own region. I am extremely grateful to Dr Mitchell and Professor Findley for their time and commitment to this 'project' and to Marj van de Sande and Dr Bruce Carruthers for their cooperation and support. There are plans to try to expand the number of NHS clinicians officially endorsing the Canadian Overview Document and hopefully, as this erudite and practical clinical tool becomes more widely read and applied, benefits to patients and positive changes in official ME policy will follow.

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Mandy Baigent 
Field Officer, ME/CFS Nelson
New Zealand
I am the Field Officer for the ME/CFS Nelson (New Zealand) support group, and recently we came across your amazing 'Clinical Case Definition and Guidelines for Medical Practitioners – An Overview of the Canadian Consensus Document. … We are excited to have discovered such a comprehensive publication which so accurately outlines ME and its symptoms etc.

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