Due to high winds, heavy rain warnings and freezing temperatures, the Hutt Support Group meeting scheduled for 13 July has been cancelled.
Next meeting will be 10 August.
Keep warm and stay safe everyone.
Street Appeal Collection Thursday 15 June 2017 Wellington CBD
Empowering People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia & Related Conditions
We are having an Street Appeal on
Thursday 15 June 2017
10am – 2pm
We need your help
Can you hold a collection bucket for an hour or more?
Can you ask a family member or friend to hold a bucket on the way to work or during their lunch hour?
Four locations in Wellington CBD
To assist please email
information@wellme.org.nz
Professor Anne La Flamme to speak on ‘When the Body’s Immune system changes from Friend to Foe’ at St Johns in the City Tuesday 9 May: 6:00pm
WellMe is plea
sed to announce Professor Anne La Flamme as our keynote speaker at its Keynote Speaker Wellington meeting to be held at 6 pm, Tuesday, 9 May at St Johns in the City conference room, Ground Floor, corner of Willis Street, Dixon Street, Te Aro, Wellington 6011.
Professor La Flamme has been in New Zealand for eleven years, and is a Professor in Cell and Immunobiology at the School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington. She is also Head of the MS Research Programme at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research. Professor La Flamme is one of New Zealand’s leading Multiple Sclerosis (MS) researchers and is focused on finding a cure for this immune mediated disease, and in particular aims to find a treatment that will benefit the sub-set of MS patients that do not respond to any existing treatment.
Professor La Flamme received her BSc in Life Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Masters in Molecular Parasitology and PhD in Immunoparasitology from the University of Washington, Seattle. After receiving her doctorate, Professor La Flamme spent several years at Cornell University studying how parasites alter the host’s immune response and cause immune-mediated pathology.
Recently, Professor La Flamme’s laboratory found that a commonly used anti-psychotic drug is effective at modifying MS in an experimental model of the disease. Through a Neurological Foundation-funded project, she is investigating the potential of this drug to treat MS and the findings will guide future trials of the drug in MS patients. If this drug is effective for the treatment of MS, new insights into immune dysfunction and its contribution to disease pathogenesis will emerge.
Professor La Flamme will talk on ‘When the Body’s Immune System Changes from Friend to Foe and its impact on our health’.
Dr Charles Lapp on our radiowaves following warm reception in Wellington
Dr Lapp’s comprehensive lecture was very well received and WellMe is pleased it has been instrumental in educating the doctors who will provide the future care of its members.
To fully optimise the short time Dr Lapp would be in Wellington, WellMe worked tirelessly to arrange a lecture on ME/CFs/Fibromyalgia to first year Registrars.
Further to his tour, Sandra Forsyth, Vice Chair of WellMe has arranged for Dr Charles Lapp to be interviewed on Radio NZ’s Nine to Noon program on Tuesday 4th April.
Dr Lapp is a world renown ME/CFS/Fibromyalgia expert and a Director of the prestigious Hunter-Hopkins Centre a US clinic specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia.
Dr Charles Lapp, Physician and Medical Director of Hunter Hopkins Centre in North Carolina, to visit Wellington as part of his Lecture Tour of New Zealand
Dr Charles Lapp, Physician and Medical Director of Hunter Hopkins Centre in North Carolina, USA will be undertaking a brief lecture tour of New Zealand between 26 March and 6 April.
Dr Lapp is recognised both nationally and internationally for his expertise in Myalgic Encephalopathy Society/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and related conditions.
Dr Lapp will be speaking in Dunedin, Wellington, Hamilton, Napier and Nelson with a final lecture in Auckland on 6 April.
In an order to maximise Dr Lapp’s time and expertise, WellMe, after much negotiation, has been able to arrange for a lecture to first year Registrars which will form part of their Continuing Medical Education programme.
WellMe is very pleased with this outcome, believing it vital that doctors who will be treating our members in the future have a better understanding of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia.
The lecture will take place on Thursday, 30 March. Although this is a closed meeting, WellMe has been able to invite selected medical professionals and researchers with expertise in ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia.
A recording of a Dr Lapp lecture will be made available to our members in due course.
WellMe raising awareness of MECFS with the Hon Anette King
WellMe has a long term strategy for the raising of public awareness around ME/CFS and the advancement of better outcomes for our members.
As part of that strategy, and WellMe’s ongoing lobbying and active relationship building, Sandra Forsyth, Vice Chair and Eileen Brodigan, Special Projects Manager, attended a recent Labour Party meeting on health.
While there Sandra and Eileen discussed with Annette King our members inability to access the public health system and the financial devastation caused by chronic illness with further discussions to take place.
Photo: Sandra Forsyth, Vice Chair of WellMe with Hon Annette King former Minister of Health, current opposition spokesperson for Health, member of the Select Committee on Health and MP for Rongotai
Dr Rosamund Vallings spoke on the latest international research on ME/CFS
In September we held our AGM. Guest speaker Dr Ros Vallings, spoke to the meeting about recent research findings presented at the 11th Invest in ME – Research International conference in London, June 2016 – the theme being ‘A New Decade of Invest in ME – Research’.
Dr Rosamund Vallings: MNZM, MB BS (Lond), MRCS LRCP, Dip Clin Hyp, BA (Massey)
Dr Vallings has run a medical practice in Auckland since 1966 which for the past 35 years has specialised in those suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME) and related conditions. Dr Vallings has been involved in diagnosing and managing these patients, running regular seminars for these patients and producing an education booklet and a number of information sheets. Dr Vallings has published two books –‘Diagnosis and management of CFS/ME’ and ‘”Managing ME/CFS” a guide for young people.’
Dr Vallings is the medical adviser to the ANZMES–the national organisation supporting those with CFS/ME and has been involved in GP and student education at the University of Auckland speaking to medical groups around NZ. Dr Vallings has regularly attended international CFS/ME conferences and presented papers.She has visited a number of CFS/ME centres overseas and maintains contact with many overseas CFS/ME organisations
Dr Vallings is a member of the International Association for CFS/ME (IACFS), has reviewed the overseas guidelines for diagnosis and management of CFS/ME for the NZ Guidelines Group, with a view to providing a set of NZ Guidelines. Dr Vallings is also a co-author of the IACFS/ME Physicians’ Primer, and has participated in the international group producing the Canadian and International Consensus Definitions for CFS/ME. She is currently involved with an international group writing a Paediatric Primer for Physicians and has frequently been involved in collaborative research both in New Zealand and overseas.
In January 2008, Dr Vallings was awarded Membership of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to CFS/ME.
In October 2016, Dr Vallings was presented with the prestigious Nelson Gantz Clinicians Award. The Award is given to a physician each year who emulates Gantz’s clinical acumen, his passion for medicine, and his empathy for people with CFS/FMD. Congratulations Ros!
