Please sponsor me for a walk I didn't know I was doing!
So,
My wife sent me an email about 6 weeks ago about the sponsored walk she’s doing next weekend to raise awareness / cash for the charity which she is the founder and chairperson of. Since she’s my wife and I’m already sponsoring her and helping organize it, I briefly scanned it and sent it to the deleted items folder with nary a second thought. However, following a recent conversation with said wife, it actually turns out that I should have read that email in a little more detail as apparently, and this came as a shock to me too, I’m doing the walk as well! What was even more of a shock was that I already knew about this and had agreed to it.
So if you like to help me regain a modicum of self-respect, would you please visit this link and donate / sponsor what you can!
<serious stuff>
Fibromyalgia is a debilitating condition that affects at least 1-in-50 people in the UK. It is characterized by chronic widespread pain, hypersensitivity to pain (and other stimuli), chronic fatigue and sleep disturbances. Worst of all many clinicians believe - despite the ever increasing research, double blind clinical trials and medications licensed specifically for the condition - that it either doesn’t exist or there is no treatment. The opposite in fact is the case. “Fibromyalgia is eminently treatable” and an increasing body of evidence shows that it is a Central Nervous System disorder.
On a personal note this condition has defined much of the last 8 years of mine and my wife’s life. When I met her she was training for the 2005/06 Volvo Ocean Race; one of the toughest round the world yacht races there is. By the end of 2003 she had had to give up work, and at her worst was unable to walk. She spent 5 years being told by both doctors and charities a like that either that she was making it up or that nothing could be done. In the end, through a private consultant and a good grasp of the science behind the condition, she found her own help and is now attempting to help the many others who are in the position she was.
FibroAction has been running for a year and a day today. In that time they have achieved a significant amount; including getting the NHS to update their information to accurately reflect current medical thinking and getting a debate in Westminster Hall at Parliament. I encourage you to visit www.fibroaction.org - please forgive any idiosyncrasies with the website, I developed it in my spare time – if you want to find out more.
</serious stuff>
Anyhoo. Thanks for reading.