A summary of recent M.E. related stories in the news. Headlines appearing in the media as dated.
‘My sister Sophia’s death was not in vain’
The elder sister of Sophia Mirza, the woman with the dubious honour of being the first person in England to officially die from M.E., has written a deeply personal account of her much-loved sibling’s treatment in the hands of officialdom – including her being sectioned to a mental hospital - and her decline and death.
Roisin Wilson says her sister lay in a blackened room day and night, wearing a blindfold and ear-plugs and in constant pain, but her illness was dubbed ‘wrong belief’ and her carer mother an ‘enabler’ for believing her child was genuinely ill.
Urging people to watch the documentary Voices from the Shadows made by her mother and brother, Roisin writes: “Sophia suffered and died from ME, but nobody else should have to.”
Irishtimes.com, online
24/01/12
Carey blasts bishops
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey launched an attack on the five Church of England bishops who orchestrated the Government defeat in the House of Lords over the proposed £26,000 a year benefit cap. In an article in today’s Daily Mail he insists the scale of Britain’s public debt – which yesterday hit £1trillion – is the ‘greatest moral scandal’ facing the country and says the welfare system rewards ‘fecklessness and irresponsibility’.
Daily Mail, p 1 and online
25/01/12
'We are social pariah'
Government efforts to bring down the cost of disability benefits have turned disabled people into ‘social pariahs,’ says former company director David Johnson of Pudsey, Yorkshire, who has had CFS for 15 years, and is appealing against a decision to stop his £90 a week incapacity benefit. Mr Johnson said the assessment process left him so mentally and physically exhausted that it took him five weeks to recover.
Yorkshire Evening Post, p 5
25/01/12
New service for students
Leaving home for university can be scary, especially if you have a serious medical condition, writes Action for M.E. Chief Executive, Sir Peter Spencer, in a letter to the Editor promoting our new interactive online forum for students.
Wigan Evening Post, p 10
24/01/12
As above
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, p 20
25/01/12
As above
lep.co.uk, online
TV documentary
Kim Ayres from Stewartry is featured in a two-part BBC Alba documentary focusing on the lives of people with M.E., the first of which was broadcast on the Gaelic digital channel on Monday. The second programme is due to be broadcast next Monday, 30 January, at 9pm.
Dumfries Courier, p 8
20/01/12
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