There will be an All Party Parliamentary Group meeting on fibromyalgia and coffee/tea reception on Thursday 10^th May 2007 at 1400-1600 at Portcullis House.  This meeting has been arranged to coincide with International Fibromyalgia Awareness day on Saturday 12^th May 2007 and is part of our Raise your Cups for Awareness Campaign.

Speakers:  Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East and Chairman of the APPG on fibromyalgia, Norah Wickerson, a Chartered Physiotherapist and Nutritional Advisor on ‘Successfully Tackling Fibromyalgia - The Combination Approach' and, hopefully, a health minister.

The meeting will start with a tea/coffee reception where there will be a chance to network followed by the presentations.  As Saturday 12^th May will be World Fibromyalgia Day this date has been chosen so we can all help to raise awareness of fibromyalgia.

For security reasons, attendance at this meeting is by official invitation only so if you wish to be included, please contact the APPG Co-ordinator giving your full name and postal address.

It is up to all of us to contact our MP in order to make them aware of the problems encountered by FM sufferers and asking them to attend this APPG in order to learn more about the condition. 

It is worth noting that MPs receive hundreds of letters a day for one reason or another and almost as many requests to attend APPGs so they need a good reason to attend ours.  It was suggested, therefore, that it would be best to ring the local office of your MP where you will get to actually talk to someone and, if you are lucky, even your MP.  Alternatively you can book an appointment to attend one of your MP’s local surgeries where it would be easier to get your point across.  Remember if we don’t make our voices heard then no one will know there is a problem. 

You could also contact your local television news channel/press to ask them to cover the event, after all a lot of cameras are there a lot of the time and our cause is as good as the next.