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Collecting reasons to donate (and/or fund-raise) for ME/CFS

Tom Kindlon

Senior Member
Messages
1,734
15492072_1234213573339833_1254523868311701154_   n.jpg

Some reasons why I donate to research into my illness (ME/CFS)

(Following on from a discussion elsewhere, I was prompted to write this)

I see donating to ME/CFS research as ways to:

- Help myself.
There clearly isn't enough known about the condition. So much is guesswork. I would like treatments that work (ideally cure) before I die and the sooner the better.

I would also like to know about which of the more experimental therapies that might be tried could be dangerous for me. Similarly I would like to know more about which drugs to take and which to avoid for other medical reasons e.g. anaesthetics. There is too much guesswork now.

I want to get as much support as possible from support systems e.g. disability payments, disability supports, etc. There will likely be some continuing discrimination generally until more is known.

When there is more known about the pathophysiology of the illness, pharmaceutical companies will be more willing to invest their millions in trials. A little money now can snowball into more money being invested in the condition.

When you want something of any sort, you very often have to invest time and/or money to get it. What I really want more than anything is my health back so it seems natural to spend some of my money trying to increase the chances of it happening. Given I am not totally broke, not giving any money to it doesn't seem very sensible.

- Help other people with ME/CFS that I've come across over the years.
It's nice to try to help other people you know. I have seen all sorts of losses people have had and problems they have endured due to ME/CFS, both because there are not effective treatments for the condition but also even without effective treatments, not enough is known.

- Helping the millions of children and adults around the world affected, plus others who have not become ill yet. Some of these are in developed countries and some are in underdeveloped countries. In some developed countries, there is some recognition of ME/CFS, but in many other countries, there would be little or no recognition of it due to a lack of diagnostic tests, etc. ME/CFS causes both a huge amount of human suffering but also a huge strain on society: reducing this burden would free up money and resources for other things.

So donating the research cover so many bases in terms of what I think is worth giving money to. Similarly in terms of what I think is worth fundraising for.

Here are some ME/CFS research funds in case anyone is interested: http://phoenixrising.me/resources-2/research-charities
 

Tom Kindlon

Senior Member
Messages
1,734
Somebody wrote this elsewhere in reply to my post:

Considering that the U.S. government has only funded about $5 million per year for CFS research, there is no other medical condition for which any of our donations, small and large, actually makes a real significant difference. $5 million per year from the CFS community together would almost literally halve the time it takes to find a cure, from say 100 years to 50 years. If we donate $10 million per year, make that 33 years. $50 million, then 10 years. Well, that's just an illustration. A small donation of $50 is 1/100,000 of the U.S. government's contribution, which is a large fraction for a small individual donor. And we have millions of people sick. So, literally, if every one of us millions of people only donated $1, $5, or $10 per year, we could find treatments that work, in a fraction of the years that would be otherwise. In our lifetimes. Soon, even.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
it eases the pain in my soul... we are all that we have, I believe that almost nobody who isn't afflicted by this disease or has a relative affected by it cares about us an ME. Only ourselves can get away from this darkness, together as one!