In ME Essential magazine, we introduced you to 20-year-old songbird, Maddy Stuckey, and her debut album 9 Lives. Our reviewer compared her voice favourably with Eva Cassidy and Katie Melua.

SHOULD PATIENTS TELL RESEARCHERS WHAT TO DO?  IF SO, HOW? 

Leo, Rusty and ME – Leo Thomson's audio diary
11.00-11.30am, BBC Radio 4 FM.

Chronic fatigue no longer seen as 'yuppie flu'
by David Tuller

Summary of key points to emerge from APPG meeting held in Committee Room 17 at the House of Commons on Thursday 12 July 2007 from 1.30pm to 3.00pm

The ME Association believes that the vast majority of people with severe ME/CFS are so ill that they should be entitled to the care and mobility components of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

On Monday 9 July the ME Association was sent the final version of new medical guidance on ME/CFS that has been prepared by the Department for Work and Pensions. This will shortly come into effect in relation to applications for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Carer's Allowance.

Could a detox massage really help cure ME?

by Barbara Lantin

ME North East’s campaign for an NHS service for 2,000 people with ME/CFS on Teeside has been taken up by Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesborough South and East Cleveland.

The Charity Commission says trustees will find it quicker and easier to update their charity's information, send accounts and file annual returns by using its revamped website, launched today.

People campaigning for ME/CFS and fibromyalgia to be taken seriously by health authorities in the Spanish region of Catalonia – capital, Barcelona – announced another victory yesterday (July 9).

The annual general meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on M.E. will be held on Thursday 12th July, 1.30pm, Committee Room 17, House of Commons. 

Gabapentin is an interesting drug in that it was originally used in the treatment of epilepsy but it has also been found to be an effective and generally well tolerated drug for the management of pain, particularly where this has a neuropathic quality (ie burning, shooting or searing) but also for some types of musculoskeletal pain. In relation to pain in ME/CFS, it is a drug that is worth considering when moderate to severe pain has not responded to more usual forms of analgesic medication.

A council care manager has worked out how to drastically cut down on form-filling at Hampshire County Council. As a result, Paul Burrows has now been voted Council Worker of the Year.

Ian Woosnam failed to win a place in the Open Golf championship during qualifying at Sunningdale on this week - but just to be playing again was a relief.

Pauline Ovenden, honorary president of Herefordshire ME/CFS/FMS Group, has been awarded the Herefordshire Voluntary Action 'Volunteer of the Year' Award in appreciation for her work for sufferers nationally and locally, and on a personal basis.