TYMES TRUST ALERT 29th June 2009 Jane Colby FRSA Executive Director The Young ME Sufferers Trust www.tymestrust.org ====== To subscribe to this mailing list, visit www.tymestrust.org. To respond to an Alert use our website Contact form. The Alerts system does not take replies. ====== US UNIVERSITY PUBLISHES JANE COLBY'S 'DAVIDA AND GOLIATH' in: 'Women's Health : Readings on Social, Economic, and Political Issues' ====== The University of Wisconsin has published Jane Colby's account of her personal struggle to get her work with Dr Elizabeth Dowsett recognised by the UK medical establishment. The original story, commissioned from Jane by an American editor, was first published in 2002 in 'That Takes Ovaries! Bold females and their brazen acts'. Asked to write American-style, Jane told how the British Medical Journal reacted to the publication of the Dowsett/Colby schools study in the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (1997). The BMJ had immediately run a number of articles criticising the findings, and also criticising Jane personally. The BMJ eventually agreed to print a detailed 450 word letter from Dr Dowsett and Jane, which they headlined: 'Journal was wrong to criticise study in schoolchildren'. The new college textbook published by the University of Wisconsin is entitled 'Women's Health : Readings on Social, Economic, and Political Issues'. The story appears in Chapter 13: 'Politics of Disease, Prevention, and the Environment'. The editors write: 'Davida and Goliath was written by a woman who had this disease, known in England as ME. She describes her battle to have a major study she did on the prevalence of ME in British schoolchildren taken seriously. This story parallels the battles many who live with CFIDS/ME fought to have the disease recognised as both real and serious, and this is a recurring story with many women's health issues.' Those in the ME world naturally do not think of ME as a women's health issue, since it affects both sexes, but the prevalence is much higher in women. This may well have contributed to the ease with which it has been labelled as hysteria, or some other psychological condition. When Jane was approached by the University of Wisconsin for permission to republish her story she was pleased to give it, knowing that American college students would gain insight into the politics of ME. Dr Dowsett's commentary on the Dowsett/Colby schools study 'Long Term Sickness Absence due to ME/CFS in UK Schools' is at www.tymestrust.org/pdfs/dowsettcolby.pdf with an introduction by 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