Journal of IiME Volume 4 Issue 1 www.investinme.org Letter from America Annette Whittermore – Testimony to CFSAC alone. If this committee will confirm that it is more than a sounding board for frustrated patients and doctors and that it can effectuate the necessary changes in this field, then the WPI fully supports the renewal of its charter. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. I believe that courage is the combination of knowing the right thing to do and then doing it. Please show us you have the courage to make this happen. Thank you for your time and attention. It is unknown whether or not the refusal of the MRC to investigate David Sampson’s legitimate complaint has anything to do with the fact that the MRC has a secret file on ME that contains records and correspondence since at least 1988 which, co-incidentally, is about the time that (Professor) Simon Wessely began to deny the existence of ME. The file is held in the UK Government National Archives at Kew (formerly known as the Public Record Office) and was understood to be closed until 2023, but this closed period has been extended until 2071, at the end of which most people currently suffering from ME will be conveniently dead http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/d isplaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=7&CATID=-54 75665. ME STORY The person writing the story (..) values life. Yet she has spent hers in isolation from those she ever loved, without seeing friend or family member. She stresses that she is not being negative in sending this (an appeal to the CMO), only "wanting people to acknowledge the seriousness of this illness and thereafter funding all that is necessary". "I just want to be better. To be less ill on a daily basis. To receive some help with this appalling illness and for it not to be too late for me. I am 53 years of age and have been living with ME for 30 years. But inside I am still 23 years old because I never got to live those 30 years fully or otherwise.” - from The UK Chief Medical Officer 1998 – 2010 A Testament to Failure [http://tinyurl.com/39d7mzx ] Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) As one puzzled ME sufferer recently noted: "why on earth have a 73 year embargo on these documents on an illness where a load of neurotic people, mostly women, wrongly think they are physically ill?" The MRC’s secret files on ME/ CFS are closed (i.e. unavailable to the public) for an unusually lengthy period of 83 years. The standard closure period is 30 years but, as in the case of these files on ME/CFS, the standard closure period may be extended. The 30- year rule usually applies to documents that are exempt from release under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and include, for example, documents concerning the formulation of government policy, documents related to defence, to national security, to the economy, and documents that are considered very confidential. It may be recalled that during the life of the Chief Medical Officer’s Working Group on ME/CFS (1998- 2002), lay members were ordered not to discuss the deliberations and were even threatened with the Official Secrets Act, for which no explanation was proffered. (Hooper, Williams,Magical Medicine, February 2010) [http://www.investinme.org/Article400%20Magi cal%20Medicine.htm] Page 31/56 ME FACTS The MRC’s secret files on ME/CFS
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