Urgent action needed to re-register the APPG on ME | please ask your MP to join | 19 June 2015
The meeting to re-register the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on ME following the General Election will take place at Westminster at 2pm on Wednesday 1st July.
Along with our colleagues at Action for ME, the ME Association forms the Secretariat to the APPG on ME.
This means we deal with much of the administrative ‘behind the scenes’ work, as well as providing up to date information and briefings to MPs and members of the House of Lords on all the key topics – DWP benefits, research, NHS services, NICE etc – that the APPG covers through our meetings with (and questioning of) ministers and senior officials from the relevant government departments.
So it really is vital that we keep the APPG on ME going and don’t allow it to fold.
The Countess of Mar was the Deputy Chair of the last APPG but we lost three key MPs at the last election: Annette Brooke MP (our former Chair), Ian Swales MP and Russell Brown MP.
And the Chair has to be an MP.
Consequently, we really need to bring in as many MPs as possible to join the APPG, as well as possibly taking on one of the now vacant officer roles: Chair, Secretary, Treasurer.
So we are asking once again if anyone has contact with their MP, especially ones that have expressed an interest in ME/CFS, or have a personal connection with the illness. Please can you try and persuade them to come along to the meeting
Members of the House of Lords can also join the APPG – so the same applies if you know anyone in the Lords.
The Secretariat is doing its best by writing and phoning MPs on our list – but we urgently need your help here as well!
Dr Charles Shepherd
Hon Medical Adviser, ME Association
