James York
Miami, FL.

James York, adrift and at work on the award-winning film Ocean Men: Extreme Dive with an IMAX Mark II camera housing in Stargate Cave on Andros Island in the Bahamas. The picture explored the beauty and science of breath-hold diving and won a prize at the International Large Format Film Festival in Paris in 2001. Watch a segment of Ocean Men on YouTube.

James York aptly and succinctly summarizes the experiences of nearly every CFS patient: “I went from thriving to barely surviving.”

He became ill with pneumonia that slid into “the ensuing nightmarish galaxy of ME/CFS symptoms” in 2004, abruptly ending his rewarding career as an underwater cameraman and marine coordinator, working in the film industry, primarily in natural history/documentary. Although losing his career was very difficult, parenting is his greatest challenge. He doesn’t get to be the parent he once was and wants to be again. He credits the faith and love of family and friends with helping him manage each day, reconciling the illness with everyday life.

Instead of working around the world on location, today, as his cognitive impairments allow, York writes. He does it for personal expression and, occasionally, compensation. His talent is clear as he eloquently articulated his thoughts about the Association to president & CEO Kim McCleary: “You and your organization have been, and continue to be, a beacon of steadfast reason amid the sea-changes of politics and medical misinformation. The research you fund, and the information you aggregate, then organize and share with us, provides valid hope for a desperately under-served patient population. It also helps inform otherwise less-than-knowledgeable medical professionals. Your ongoing advocacy efforts are heroic in scope. I, like many others, am so grateful for your hard work to legitimize, ultimately understand and reverse this challenging disease.”

He joined the ranks of Catalyst Fund donors not only with a financial gift, but also as the first consented participant in the SolveCFS BioBank. “I firmly believe your hard work and diligence, and adherence to the scientific method, will prevail in the ongoing challenge to understand this debilitating disease,” York says, wishing he could do more. “I hope one day, in the spirit of Claudia Goodell and the 24 Hour Enchanted Forest Bike Race, to organize a water sports event here in South Florida to raise funds for the SolveCFS effort!”

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