I'm not an expert in ME, I'm not even close to be able to speak about it
with any kind of authority, nor could I even pretend I know what it
feels like - but I know that the general lack of treatment and support
is wrong. As long as I've known my mother-in-law I've wanted to do
something to help; by which I mean more than just push her in her chair
and take her out occasionally. The problem is that this is no where near
as regular as I'd like and does not feel like anything more than a
temporary measure.
Raising money for Invest in ME is something I feel strongly about, although as a charity it's one I have only heard of recently. But since I've seen the impressive list of achievements behind them and the real work in raising awareness and more importantly its progressive stance on finding a workable treatment I knew that it was a cause I wanted to aid however possible. I don't have a lot of money to give myself, but I don't think it's just an issue of giving funds (although that's vitally important), it's also about getting people to engage with the issue, to acknowledge it for it is.
I've
been an author to one degree or another for the last decade, from
casual blogging to paid projects, but this is my first publication and I
couldn't be more excited about it. When writing these stories over the
last five years I didn't imagine I'd one day publish them, but having
finally see it go on sale it all seems to fit rather well. I shan't try
and pretend that the stories somehow cover ME or somehow feed into it,
well not any more than anything else seems to. But what I do say is that
I want to help get people to see things differently, to appreciate an
aspect to an issue they might not have seen before. In some amazing act
of serendipity this is also what I want for people's attitudes to ME - I
don't think this is a matter of convenience or a need for "closure",
but I at least think it's fitting.
There
are a couple of ways I hope people can help support IiME with this
book, firstly through all profits of the sale via Amazon
or, for those who aren't able to support financially - through
spreading the word and helping gain more exposure using the "pay with a
tweet" button. I would of course love to see everyone contributing
towards this great cause, however, I realise this isn't just about raw
funding, but also changing attitudes and hope that through my work here,
I might contribute something towards affecting a change of some kind -
no matter how small.
From
an author's prospective I hope that you enjoy the book and take
something away from it once you've finished. For more information about
the book itself and how to get a copy take a look here, and if anyone wants to get in contact you can find me on Twitter and Google+ - I look forward to hearing from you!
