ME/CFS South Australia Inc: Disability-Led Opera Company Raises Their Voice For At-Risk Chronic Illness Community During COVID-19

ME/CFS SOUTH AUSTRALIA INC

Registered Charity 3104

Email:
sacfs@sacfs.asn.au

Mailing address:
PO Box 322,
Modbury North,
South Australia 5092

Phone:
1300 128 339

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday,
10am - 4pm
(phone)

ME/CFS South Australia Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.

ME/CFS South Australia Inc aims to keep members informed of various research projects, diets, medications, therapies, news items, etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.

Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this Web site are not necessarily the official views of the Society or its Committee and are not simply an endorsement of products or services.

Disability-Led Opera Company Raises Their Voice For At-Risk Chronic Illness Community During COVID-19

Monday 11 May 2020

Disability-Led Opera Company Raises Their Voice For At-Risk Chronic Illness Community During COVID-19

Canada's only disability-led, disability-run opera company is raising their voice in a new way for an at-risk community. Throughout the month of May, Vancouver's Opera Mariposa is running their first-ever online Benefit + Awareness campaign, a charity fundraiser in support of the ME|FM Society of BC. The digital event honours the International Awareness Month for chronic neuroimmune diseases, specifically ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) and FM (fibromyalgia). In the midst of a pandemic, it also advocates for a community that is uniquely at risk.

Opera Mariposa has held a Benefit + Awareness Show for ME & FM every year since the company's inception, and was working on their eighth annual charity concert when COVID-19 halted the show. "One day, we were in the middle of planning rehearsals," says Mariposa general manager Stephanie Ko, who has suffered from ME since age eight. "Then COVID-19 happened, and it rapidly became clear there was no way for us to responsibly proceed with the production."

In such challenging times, though, the Mariposa team wanted to support the chronically ill community more than ever. "People with ME and FM are incredibly vulnerable right now," says Ko. "Statistics Canada shows that these patients already have the highest poverty levels and greatest unmet healthcare needs of any patient group in Canada. What's worse, is illnesses like ME are known to have a post-viral onset. There have been documented cases triggered by other coronaviruses, and based on previous studies, some researchers are warning that up to 10% of recovering COVID-19 patients could go on to develop ME."