The Association for Young People With ME (AYME) will be raising awareness during ME Awareness Week 10-16 May. The UK organisation represent young people with ME/CFS in the government, the medical colleges and the press.
It’s estimated that 25,000 children in the UK have ME/CFS. It’s a condition that is the most common recorded cause of absence among school children – double the recorded absences due to child cancer.
In 2009 their focus is on “the severely affected”. They give useful ideas for raising ME Awareness for their young members and it’s advice that’s useful for adults too.
With ideas for all ability levels it includes advice for talking to the media about their stories and some fundraising ideas too.
Young people from the UK’s largest ME/CFS children’s charity are raising awareness of the real impact of the debilitating condition, during ME Awareness Week, May 9th -16th.
This year The Association of Young People with ME, AYME is focusing on children with severe ME/CFS who are, or have been bed-bound in a darkened, sound-proofed room; tube-fed because they are too weak to chew; too sensitive to be touched; unable to talk and temporarily blind. Withdrawal from mainstream education leads to loss of contact with peers, social exclusion, isolation and loneliness. The need for 24-hour care also puts enormous strain and stress on the whole family.
There is no known cause or cure but we do know that early diagnosis can aid recovery and stop children declining into severe ME/CFS. AYME’s Chief Executive Officer, Mary-Jane Willows said: “We must stop children spiralling into this devastating world of severe ME/CFS. They need to be believed, given prompt access to ME/CFS specialists, diagnosed correctly and given the appropriate care and support.”
Taken from press release on AYME site
If you would like more information please see AYME‘s site for more details.
We wish everyone involved every success in this year’s campaign and thank them for all their hard work.
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