Left to Fend for Ourselves
The following letter, signed by the leaders of the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome community which includes more than one million Canadians, plus their concerned families, has been sent to the incumbent leaders of the Federal political parties, and to selected media nationwide.

FM-CFS Canada and the National ME/FM Action Network have been seeking assistance for many years, since 1996 and 1994 respectively.   The fend-for-yourself health care system requires charities to compete for resources against well-established large charities.   Despite more than one million patients sharing an awful condition, there has been no funding help from the Federal Government.   Despite the multi-billion annual cost to the Federal Government, there has been no funding.   We want what the other well-established charities receive - assistance to provide the basic services to our community, and a chance to build a self-sustaining organisation that can finally compete.   We argue it is not in Canada's financial interest to continue spending so much on disability insurance and in lost taxes, health care and local social service costs, without building the patient community's ability to act.   Imagine Canada without one of the large health charities.   Imagine them without tens or hundreds of millions in Federal funding.

Click here for a PDF version.

David Mann is a respected business leader in Ottawa, formerly the Chairman of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, he has since been battling FM for more than 10 years.

Lydia Neilson, M.S.M., the founder of the National ME/FM Action Network, received the Governor General's award for helping to create diagnosis and treatment protocols for FM & ME/CFS.

For further information, contact John Ernst, Executive Director, FM-CFS Canada, at hope@fm-cfs.ca or 613-565-2423