May 12th is International Fibromyalgia Awareness Day!
May 12th was chosen as the International Awareness Day for Fibromyalgia because it was the birthday of Florence Nightingale. The pioneer of modern nursing developed Crimean Fever following her return from the Crimean War and this developed into a chronic condition that was finally diagnosed as neurasthenia, a diagnosis no longer around that encompasses what are now known as Fibromyalgia Syndrome, Chronic fatigue Syndrome or ME and other conditions. Despite being severely disabled by her condition, Florence Nightingale played the central role in the establishment of the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army which led to a major overhaul of military medical care, set up what is now known as the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, helped set up the Women’s College of Medicine and wrote a book.
If anyone is near the West Berkshire area of the UK, the West Berks ME & Fibromyalgia Support Group are holding a special drop-in session this evening from 7pm, in Meeting Room 2 of the West Berks Community Hospital (on the A4 just east of Newbury). Prospective members with Fibromyalgia Syndrome (Fibro) are especially welcome, but anyone interested in Fibro, whether they are a friend, carer or someone just wanting to know more, should come along to chat about Fibro and hear what is going on for Fibro awareness.
The FibroAction website is unfortunately down until this evening because of upgrades to the server in the US over the weekend (with time differences), but check back this week for the new and improved version! www.fibroaction.org
May 12, 2008 at 6:51 am
Today also marks the release date of book “Reviving the Broken Marionette: Treatments for CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia”, which features over 250 medications that can be used to treat these illnesses. I’ve sent over 900 press releases (covering six continents), so hopefully the media will find it a good reason to publish an article about the subject and spread awareness. So far I’ve been unable to get any coverage for the awareness day here in Finland (outside of blogs), which is very frustrating (especially since I’m a journalist).
May 15, 2008 at 3:06 am
I did my post for FM Awareness day and then crashed. But I am glad that in my surfing for other posters, I found your site. I look forward to coming back here and scrolling back.