National CFS Public Awareness Campaign Needs Your Help

With just little over a month remaining before the June 7 launch of the CFS public awareness campaign, the CFIDS Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continue work on readying various campaign components. This is the first national CFS awareness campaign in the United States.

We also continue work on securing partners for this historic educational initiative. New campaign partners include the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, the American Academy of Physician Assistants, the Society for Women’s Health Research and the American Academy of Family Physicians. These organizations will work with CDC and the CFIDS Association on distributing up-to-date CFS information to their members.

The CFIDS Association is also asking individuals—including CFIDSLink subscribers—to become informal campaign partners and help us with CFS awareness building efforts.

Here are some things you can do to help us spark interest in CFS:

• New campaign websites are being developed by the CDC and the CFIDS Association to provide information for CFS patients, the general public, caregivers and health care professionals. Visit both websites (beginning on June 7) to keep abreast of campaign developments, to access campaign materials, to read CDC campaign announcements and to respond to CFIDS Association requests for action.
  • CDC: www.cdc.gov/cfs
  • CFIDS Association: www.cfids.org/sparkcfs

• Help illuminate the impact of this illness by volunteering to be a spokesperson when someone in the local media wants to interview a CFS patient or family member. Contact Tiffany Stovall at tmstovall@cfids.org if you’re interested in this role.

• Become a catalyst for change by signing up for the Grassroots Action Center . This easy-to-use online tool will be more important than ever during the campaign when we need to contact local and national media, government officials and elected representatives about campaign issues. Go to www.cfids.org and click on the Capitol building to sign up to be an online advocate.

• Ignite interest in CFS by donating money to the CFIDS Association for education and awareness. Even a $5, $10 or $25 gift will make a difference and help us extend the reach of the campaign. To donate, visit http://www.cfids.org/ecommerce/online-donations.asp  and select "education/awareness" as your donation type. Or call 704-365-2343. 

• Spark increased attention to CFS throughout the duration of the campaign by prominently displaying and wearing campaign items like a car magnet and T-shirt that promote CFS awareness and bind the extended CFS community together. Information on these campaign items will be available at our new campaign website, www.cfids.org/sparkcfs, beginning June 7.

• Support publications and organizations that publish, print and broadcast PSAs developed by the campaign, or that publish good articles about CFS. The first full-page color ads for the campaign will appear in the July issues of Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens. These issues will be on newsstands in June. When you see positive coverage of CFS in the media, write the editor or station manager to voice your appreciation.

Look for an extensive article on all the exciting campaign activities in the next issue of the CFIDSLink.