TYMES TRUST ALERT 29 November 2009 Jane Colby FRSA Executive Director The Young ME Sufferers Trust www.tymestrust.org ====== To subscribe to this mailing list, visit www.tymestrust.org. ====== ON YOUNG HEARTS DAY 2009 ====== Today is our 6th Young Hearts Day, our day for remembering young people with ME everywhere. ME can steal away years of a child's life, so let's celebrate their spirit and try to put a smile on some faces today. Trust Mark to come up with something extra to welcome people onto our website! Beautiful hearts floating down between the tumbling dandelion heads. See them at www.tymestrust.org and while you're there, let Shannen Dabson, our Young Advocate, tell you how she's come to trust her own judgement to see her through. A wise head on young shoulders. Shannen says: 'My friend at school was diagnosed too. She does far more school hours than me but then relapses. She gets fed up with no one listening to her. She's struggling to please everyone else and making herself miserable and ill in the process. She has no control over what she does. 'If I'd have gone the conventional route I may not now feel so optimistic and in control of my own life. I would not have the good friends and role models. I would not have my qualifications - 6 GCSEs. Instead, I may just have short spells of school attendance between relapses!' Read her entire speech (the official, complete version) on our Publications Page under 'Experiences'. There's a quick link to it at the top of our home page. And don't forget, the little book of 'Young Hearts' makes a perfect present. Watch the original TV interview (also on our home page, with the hearts!) and you can order online using our Donations Form. Price still held at £7.95 inc p&p. We'd love to wish you a Happy Young Hearts Day, but we know that many of you may be feeling really dire. So we are lighting our candle, thinking of you all and sending our love. More news soon. Jane ====== READ PREVIOUS ALERTS AND REGISTER FOR FUTURE ONES AT www.tymestrust.org ====== DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE OUR ALERTS? ====== You are welcome to redistribute or reprint this email without seeking our permission provided: 1) you do not abbreviate, add to, or change the text in any way; 2) the authorship information is retained; and 3) www.tymestrust.org is credited as the source. Jane Colby is Executive Director of The Young ME Sufferers Trust. She was a Headteacher for nine years, a member of the government Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on CFS/ME and co-authored ME/CFS In UK Schools, the largest epidemiological study of ME to date. She is a member of the National Association of Educational Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (now ASPECT), a life member of the National Association of Head Teachers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Copyright (c) 2009 The Young ME Sufferers Trust