From The Desk of Kim McCleary

It’s year-end and my mailboxes at home and here in the office are stuffed every day with colorful donation requests from a wide variety of charitable causes. The local food bank. Funds for Parkinson’s research. Cancer and AIDS organizations. Relief programs. UNC, my alma mater. Women’s rights organizations. Environmental groups. My extended family often exchanges donations to favorite causes instead of Christmas gifts, so I suppose that’s why I end up on so many lists. My husband and I sort through them, set priorities, determine gift sizes and write checks. Many of our friends follow a similar pattern and I gently coax those who stop before getting to the last step. If the disasters of 2005 taught us anything, it is how crucial the charitable sector is to filling the huge holes that exist in our nation’s safety net.

The CFIDS Association of America also fills gaps that exist. Research shows that at least a million Americans have CFIDS, yet fewer than 20 percent have been diagnosed by a healthcare professional. Diagnosed patients have trouble convincing family of the severity of their symptoms and the reasons why they can’t function at the same level they used to at home, at work or at school. Treatment is still an imperfect patchwork of symptom-based strategies and lifestyle adjustments. Research into the cause, cures and prevention of CFIDS is still woefully underfunded by federal and corporate sources. So, the Association leverages a fairly modest budget to fill these gaps and to influence better-heeled funders (including the government) to do more. And for 18 years, we have been able to sustain and expand these efforts thanks to the generosity of people with CFIDS and those who care about them, and a number of family foundations and corporations.

On behalf of the CFIDS Association of America, thank you for supporting our work, whether through your charitable gifts or membership, by participating in one of our advocacy campaigns, or by reading and sharing our publications. We deeply appreciate the trust and confidence you vest in us and hope that in 2006 we will propel breakthroughs in research, education and policy.

With gratitude and hope for good health in the new year,

K. Kimberly McCleary
President & CEO
The CFIDS Association of America