Chairs Report May 2006

In April, at the group AGM, our Chair, Dave Webster, resigned from this position, Dave moved to the East coast in October of 2005 and soon realised that the travelling was not a feasible option, with regret Dave left the committee but remains a member of the group.

At the May committee meeting a resolution was put to the committee that I be proposed as the Chair of the Group. A vote was taken and the motion was passed and I accepted the role.

I have been with the group for 5 years, from the very first meeting that I attended I knew immediately that I wished to help the committee with their cause. I was invited to the next committee meeting and I offered my help, I was voted on as an associate member and within 3 months I was asked to take on the library, I remain the Library Co-ordinator over 5 years later. After 4 months as an associate member I was invited to become management committee, which I accepted whole heartedly. Eighteen months later I was asked by the Chair of the group if I "could do something about awareness" I had never given this any thought and wondered just what could I do to raise the profile of fibromyalgia, I had never been in advertising or public relations in my "previous life" and this was certainly going to be a challenge. I reflected upon awareness week the year previous and remembered that MP Nick Palmer and MP Paddy Tippings had literally dropped in for a few minutes at our normal group meeting and Nick had spoken briefly to the group members about the FAPPG, I realised that anything more than this would be considered an improvement!

I took this challenge to heart and began making plans, thus was born my title of Awareness Co-ordinator for the Nottingham group. In 2003 the Nottingham group held their first Awareness Conference with over 200 people attending, this followed with a further two Conferences in 2004 and 2005. We were fortunate that at two of the conferences the Lord Mayor of Nottingham opened the event and Central Television came along to film the first conference, this was shown on the teatime news of the same day. The first conference to raise Awareness was attended by 3 MEP's and 5 MP's, local dignitaries attended and many organisations, this was to set the pattern for the following two conferences. Guest speakers that I have invited over the 3 years have been a Rheumatology Consultant, MP Nick Palmer to talk about the FAPPG, the late Bob Stewart and his wife Pam (Bob being my greatest source of encouragement along side Michael and Florrie Jones) two Pain Management Consultants from the Queens Medical Centre, an Osteopath and the Expert Patient Programme to name a few. I am in the process of planning 3 further conferences with new speakers that will most likely, for the first time ever, not be held at the City Hospital.

In the Autumn of 2004, I received a letter in my capacity as Awareness Co-ordinator for the group, from the Birmingham PCT to enquire if I might be interested in attending a two day medical convention for medical professionals at the Birmingham NEC in May 2005, my first reaction was "crumbs look at the cost of the stands" but I took the letter along with the information to the next committee meeting and they all agreed unanimously that we should do this, the opportunity to raise awareness of fibromyalgia to medical professionals was too good to miss, this was a huge success which followed with the committee taking the decision to do this again in 2006 but this time with a larger stand! I followed this with a plan to make a CD about fibromyalgia and send one to every Nottinghamshire MP. When our group secretary, Carla, resigned two years ago no one came forward to replace her, inevitably the task to write letters on behalf of the group passed to me, two years later I remain the group secretary and it was in this capacity, that jointly, with Michael we recently applied for a grant from "Awards for All" for equipment, the application was successful and we are now in the position to purchase necessary group equipment that will benefit the group work and help tremendously with the conferences and awareness raising that are in the planning stages that I have for 2006/7. I have input into the group website, the group newsletter and I am the Saturday speaker co-ordinator. I took the decision in the Autumn of 2005 to invite speakers throughout 2006 who had an interest in fibromyalgia, details of our meetings and information about the speakers are on our group website under "Meetings". The Conferences could not have been accomplished without the amazing support of the committee and group members, for which I thank them all, the NEC would not go ahead without the support of the committee and the invaluable input of Michael and Florrie, the plans that I have in mind for the remainder of 2006 and 2007 will be difficult to fulfil without the support of my colleagues on the committee and group members but I have no doubt that they will support me, it appears that what ever awareness ideas I put before the committee they are always ready to "do their bit" and make it all possible, I can only express that this speaks volumes for their commitment, support and dedication, a team to be proud of. There are no paid volunteers in our group and the majority of us have fibromyalgia which makes our volunteer work very difficult and tedious, our condition limits our capabilities but not our enthusiasm,fibromyalgia requires ongoing awareness raising and the Nottingham group will continue to work for change, acknowledgement and recognition throughout the medical field.

Michael, Florrie, Dave, Kay and myself have just returned from the two day Medical Convention at the NEC where we received tremendous support from the medical professionals attending this convention, we had GP's shaking our hands and stating that it was great that we were there and we received feedback comments from around the hall that we were being spoken of very highly for our information, presentation and our commitment to changing the accepted understanding of fibromyalgia, this in itself makes everything worth while, for further information about this convention I have written about it under the "News" section on our website.

The group continue to raise funds by attending the local carnivals, I continue to write to our MP's and organisations and MIchael and I continue to keep the hospitals supplied with our group posters and information for those diagnosed with FMS. We attend the FAPPG meetings, we network with other organisations and we keep in touch with our colleagues from the Midlands Fibromyalgia groups, the work of the group continues to grow and evolve, tribute needs paying to all our members who continuously remain with the group and support us endlessly, you are the reason why we feel so committed to the cause.

In accepting the role of the Chair of the group my hope is that we continue to go from strength to strength and make a positive difference.

Thank you Christine.