The hidden illness
Anne Faulkner writes about Quakers and the fight against ME
When there is a group of people being treated with unkindness and injustice, their suffering either ignored or disbelieved, then it is likely that some Quakers will intervene to try to do something about it. So it is with the disease popularly known as ME, although scientists prefer to call it Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). When, in the 1980s, I was diagnosed with the illness I was appalled to find a situation where sufferers were enduring pain and distress, but their doctors were either ignoring their problems or abusing them, insisting their illness was imaginary. Fortunately, there was a group of doctors and scientists who were alarmed at the increasing prevalence of the illness and were anxious that a research body should be formed. This is where Quakers stepped in.
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