Even if you or your support group and family can’t attend physically, you can take a place in the audience and SHOW YOUR SUPPORT for more ME/CFS research funding, at the upcoming federal CFS Advisory Committee Meeting in Washington, DC, on Monday and Tuesday, May 5&6.
ACT NOW to have your photo & name take a proud place at the meeting in one of the empty chairs. Just contact the (Empty Chairc Project coordinators) at the PANDORA website. Write "Empty Chair Project" in the e-mail subject line, and they’ll do the rest.
For details about the upcoming meeting, and the CFSAC’s work to advise the Department of Health & Human Services about ME/CFS research, funding, and patient needs, click here.
Awareness of Patient ‘Invisibility’ Equals More Visibility
Sponsored by PANDORA in collaboration with a growing number of other advocacy groups, the Empty Chairc Project demonstrates that support for the CFS Advisory Committee’s work extends far beyond those who are able to travel to Washington for its meetings. In particular, a large photo-attendance can help emphasize the importance of recording or broadcasting the CFSAC's reports so that "invisible" patients everywhere can hear them.
Go to the PANDORA site to see photos of the Empty Chair section from the last CFSAC meeting, and link to the websites of other organizations participating in the project. And when you're there, link to the CFSAC meeting archives, because HHS is counting clicks as a way to gauge community interest.
To Be Continued Until…
According to PANDORA Founder Marly Silverman, this project will continue to set up the empty chairs “until our community gets what it needs!”
