In February we received the very sad news that Anne Örtegren from Sweden had passed away. We considered Anne a dear friend - although we had never met Anne in person, one of the sad things we carry with us. Yet we instinctively trusted and liked Anne from the very first time we communicated and counted her as a true friend. When we look at the correspondence with Anne we can see it had started in 2007 - a year after we were formed as a charity. In all the correspondence that we had with Anne one always admired the resilience, the articulate nature of her commenting, her strength of character, her dedication and her determination to continue to battle this disease, and her kindness in helping others and being there to make progress. She was a rock – somebody whose opinion we valued and whose help and support we greatly appreciated - and she was generous with her support. Anne’s determination to help us and to encourage Swedish researchers to participate was a shining light for us. Her help behind the scenes led to real collaborations between researchers who met at our Colloquiums. All of this despite the huge suffering that she endured for years. Yet she rarely referred to this. Anne was never one to promote herself or seek the limelight for the sake of it – a refreshing example in this age. She was irreplaceable. Her spirit was just an inspiration. Though we knew Anne was suffering, and had been for such a long time, we were still communicating with her until very recently and had no knowledge of what was to transpire. It is very difficult to read Anne’s last post (below). Not just because of the suffering and pain and hopelessness that she describes – but because Anne was so articulate in describing her situation – never with self-pity, always displaying the same courage that she showed in her life. Invest in ME research (Charity Nr. 1153730) www.investinme.org Page 29 of 56
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