"Vision without action is merely a dream.
Action without vision just passes the time.
Vision with action can change the world."
In April 2006 Invest in ME heard of a plan by an American lady to open a
centre for ME. We wrote an email to Mrs Annette
Whittemore-
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We heard of the news of the CFS Research Centre being set up by
your family in Nevada. I have been trying to find out more about
the status of your efforts to set up this centre so that we
could put an update on our web site (www.investinme.org).
I wondered if it is possible to know the current situation of
this centre as the only news I can find on the web seems to
relate to last year. It is excellent news that training of new
researchers will be possible from such a centre and compares to
the lack of facilities or innovative ideas such as this in
the UK.
We were also interested in your work on HHV-6 and had this as
our topic of the week recently, and linked to your site and your
upcoming conference in Barcelona.
Out of interest we have
organised a conference in London - The ME Conference 2006 - on
ME Awareness Day 12th May. If you are still around in Europe
after the HHV-6 conference perhaps you would be very welcome
to join us at the conference in London?
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On that occasion we didn't receive a reply, perhaps the email never got through, but we persevered and
Annette answered our next invitation - to the two-day 2nd Invest in ME
International ME/CFS Conference in 2007. She was accompanied by Dr Daniel Peterson – and since then the WPI have had a permanent slot
reserved and have attended each IiME conference.
The conferences have borne witness to the amazing progress which has been
made by WPI and the determination and integrity which has been a hallmark of
Dr Dan Peterson’s work.
In a world where doing nothing about the scandal of ME has been the norm for
governments, where immoral and corrupt or even criminal acts are perpetrated
on ME patients and indirectly on their families by individuals and
organizations who wish to maintain their influence, where it is easier for
society to ignore rather than face up to the scandal of ME - the WPI shines
as a beacon of hope for millions that their lives
will improve.
The Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro Immune Disease aims to bring
effective treatments to patients with illnesses that are caused by acquired
dysregulation of both the immune system and the nervous system, often
resulting in life long disease and disability. The WPI will facilitate and
advance patient care; research the pathophysiology of neuro-immune diseases
such as ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, atypical MS, and autism; develop therapeutics,
diagnostics and prevention strategies for this spectrum of diseases; and
advance and support medical education and physician training.
The WPI will be based at the
University of Nevada School of Medicine, Centre for Molecular Medicine, - a
state-of-the-art 100,000 square foot facility on the Reno campus. The Centre
houses portions of several university departments and includes research
laboratories and clinical space.
Invest in ME would like to congratulate the Whittemore-Peterson Institute,
its founders Mrs Annette Whittemore and Dr Daniel Peterson and Research
Director Dr Judy Mikovits, Dr Vince Lombardi and the others who make up this
brave new world.
And we would like to thank the Whittemore family for their often
unrecognized yet crucial support and belief in this venture.
The Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Diseases offers the hope
to millions that proper science will prevail and overcome the ignorance and
corruption which has been allowed to destroy lives of people with ME.
As we begin our attempt to create a similar centre of Excellence for ME
in the UK Invest in ME wish to thank publicly the WPI for their vision,
determination and courage in showing the world the direction - in not looking at things the
way they are, and asking why... but in dreaming of things that never were, and
asking why not?
Congratulations to the WPI from Invest in ME and our supporters and best
wishes for the future.
"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates
it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral" -
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Witness now a new era in ME/CFS research.
http://www.wpinstitute.org/index.html
