23 May 2008
Sir Liam Donaldson
Chief Medical Officer
Department of Health
Room 114
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS
INVITATION from the WHITTEMORE-PETERSON INSTITUTE
Dear
Sir Liam,
Invest in
ME is a UK charity which promotes better education regarding myalgic
encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) and campaigns for a national strategy for
biomedical research into ME/CFS.
We invited
you to our recent International ME/CFS Conference in London on 23rd
May 2008, a conference devoted to biomedical research and treatments
for this debilitating neurological illness. The conference theme was
Sub Grouping and Treatments for ME/CFS and demonstrated the only
logical way forward to tackling this illness. Dr Paul Cosford
attended on your behalf.
In Nevada,
USA, the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune
Diseases (WPI) is being established to perform important biomedical
research into ME/CFS and other chronic illnesses.
The
WPI will conduct research, provide clinical care of patients with
ME/CFS and fibromyalgia and develop educational programmes for the community and physicians. The WPI will also seek answers
for patients with other chronic systemic illnesses including
atypical MS, Gulf War Syndrome and autism; diseases that result from
complex disorders of the immune system and brain.
This
institute is the model which many feel ought to be replicated in the
UK with a clear strategy of biomedical research being created and
implemented. The WPI’s Research Director, Dr Judy Mikovits,
discussed how sub grouping would affect research strategies.
As a
follow up to our London conference the founder of the institute,
Mrs. Annette Whittemore, has kindly invited you to visit the WPI
within the next 6-8 months to enable you to see the plans for the
institute and discuss with the WPI board and their researchers how
their strategy. Mrs. Whittemore has also invited you to the official
opening of the institute in 2010.
Invest in
ME will happily facilitate this meeting and we hope you will accept
the invitations and urge you to take the opportunity to demonstrate
a new strategy for ME/CFS which will be to the benefit of the
thousands and thousands of sufferers and families affected by this
illness,
Yours Sincerely,
Kathleen McCall
Chairman Invest in ME
Charity
Number 1114035