This year is shaping up to be big and exciting. The Management Committee is quite optimistic about our upcoming Awareness Week and Badge Day – we expect to improve our membership numbers and financial position.
For those of you relatively new to the organisation, have a look in the Society Section where the significance of May 12 is explained; you will find full details of our Awareness Evening and Expo (Monday, May 13) and Badge Day (Friday, May 31).
You will also find enclosed a flyer for the Awareness Evening. Please pass it along to anyone who isn’t a member – or put it in your local supermarket window!
We are pleased to announce that Her Excellency the Governor of South Australia, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, AC, CVO, MBE, has accepted our invitation to be our Patron. We look forward to her assistance – her first duty will be to open the May 13 Awareness Evening and Expo.
Going into the ‘Awareness Week Period’ we are extending our office hours. For a trial period we will be opening on Mondays. Our hours are now: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday from 10am to 3pm.
I will stress that opening hours are dependent on volunteer availability, and there are the odd unfortunate occasions when we cannot meet these commitments. I suggest it wise to ring before coming in – just to make sure.
We cannot thank the Commonwealth Bank (http://www.commbank.com.au) enough for a donation of $3000 to assist us with our Awareness projects this May. Without this sort of support we would be unable to put on events of this scale.
It was a pleasant surprise to receive a cheque for $2870 from the Sunshine Foundation. This was in response to a grant application submitted back in December.
The money has been given to evaluate the effectiveness of the Stanford Chronic Illness Self-Management Course on people with CFS.
One of our members, Peter Heading, applied to his employer to make a donation to the Society. We thank the Royal & SunAlliance Foundation (http://www.royalsunalliance.com.au) for their kind gift of $1000.
Our Badge Day fundraiser is going to be great – our target is $6000. The thing I’d like to stress is that little amounts add up. If you can help out in any of the ways we have suggested, then let us know.
Last but not least…. It was very sad to hear of the death of Tracey Ash. She was a wonderfully bright and bubbly person. It is a tragedy that CFS prevented her from fulfilling her dreams. It reminds us all of the absolute pain and isolation this condition can bring to us at different times – yet others endure it 24 hrs a day. It is time we lobbied hard for better care for the really sick – who are so often forgotten. See page 37 for more about Tracey and the Fund that is being set up in her name.
The Management Committee is excited about this year. We hope you can share in our enthusiasm and are encouraged by some of the progress we have made.
Paul Leverenz
President
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Copyright ME/CFS Australia (SA) Inc
Reprinted from http://www.sacfs.asn.au/