A fundraising campaign to cover the costs of a top virologist’s visit to a major ME research conference in the UK later this year has reached its target.
Successful fundraising organised by the ME Association, with the support of trustees of Action for M.E. and dozens of individual contributors, will enable Professor Ian Lipkin to travel to a UK CFS/ME Research Collaborative scientific conference, where he is due deliver a keynote speech at the beginning of September.
The event will include a session where patients can interact with key researchers.
Extra costs will be incurred because Professor Lipkin, from Columbia University in New York, has a medical condition that requires him to fly business-class. He needs to be able to lie flat on long-distance flights.
Over £3,000 was raised in double-quick time to cover the costs of his flights and accommodation – with the online fundraising pages being closed to further donations yesterday (Wednesday).
Professor Lipkin has made world-leading contributions in the identification of West Nile virus, the battle against the SARS virus in China and some years ago was called on by the US authorities to settle a huge controversy over whether two possible new viruses were implicated in the spread of M.E. Since then, he has been developing his expertise in ME/CFS.
ME Association chairman Neil Riley commented:
“Thanks to this charity-inspired co-operation, we can now welcome this top scientist to this important meeting in Bristol – where he will help energise UK biomedical research into ME/CFS for years to come.”