....Diagnose Support

•  It takes some people years and years to find out what is wrong with them. If everyone knew all about FM & CFS people would be diagnosed earlier on and they would have to go through less of those depressing years of searching for answers.

• Sufferers who haven’t found this website will feel less alone if there is a lot of awareness about their illnesses, because they will see posters and information booklets all over the place, giving them tips on how to cope.

• Doctors will become more interested in our illnesses and look into the newest medications and treatments, rather than relying on the old “well there’s nothing we can do for fibromyalgia / CFS” response.

• Medical researchers and scientists will be more interested in finding a cure! Nobody wants to spend their time looking for a cure for something that no-one has heard of, they all want to cure the big illnesses that people know about!

• We will no longer have to answer questions such as “Fibromyalgia? What on Earth is that?” or “Is that even a real illness?” No more long difficult explanations of the never-ending symptoms. 

• People may even become more understanding! Relatives and friends will understand why you don’t feel up to partying. Employers understand why you have limitations and will be able to give you suitable arrangements because they will know what they are dealing with. 

• Advertising companies will realise that there are a LOT of us and will design fibro-friendly products such as ride-on vacuum cleaners, ergonomically-designed car seats, etc. 

• More support groups will be formed as a result of more people finding out that they have fibromyalgia / CFS 

• More people will donate money to research to find new treatments and… dare I say it… maybe even a cure! 

• Because it makes you feel good about yourself!! You aren’t just doing this for yourself; we are doing this as a TEAM EFFORT! We need to reach as many people as possible to make this a success

Well, we hope we can get to that number. So far so good and we would like to invite you to share your ideas with us to add to the list. You might have a brilliant idea that could make global impact when all our readers execute it… 

Prickles' collection of suggestions is posted here. Some of these suggestions are directed at people trying to increase fibromyalgia awareness, but you can edit the materials to apply to your invisible illness. 

We are always working on adding to our awareness materials. What is not yet uploaded will follow shortly.

• Print and distribute leaflets, at school, work, at family gatherings, church or at local events.
• Insert a small information card about your illness in greeting cards. 
• Put posters up where ever you can; schools, church, hospital, library.
• Bumper stickers are a great way to catch someone’s eye in traffic jams.
• Wear Fibromyalgia bracelets or other awareness apparel. 

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• Contact the press to ask them for an editorial, their help in increasing awareness and their support to our cause.
• Write an article for your university or school newspaper
• Visit websites of newspapers and TV shows. The more requests they receive the better the chance they will devote some time to talking about the illness in question.
• Call your radio show or email them and ask them to do a show about FM/C.F.S./etc
• Contact your MP / Local Government / Government Health department and address the issues in a formal letter.
• Sign any petition you can to help make a statement. Some petitions are residents only, some are open.

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• Send an awareness email to your mailing list. Awareness days are a good excuse to send another "fwd" email to your university mailing list, work colleagues or friends. Perhaps you will help someone who does not know what is wrong with them.
• Finally send that email to your colleague whose niece seems to be ill for a long time with ill-defined symptoms and ask him/her to pass on this website address
• Email Google, MSN, Yahoo, Walmart, Netscape, Microsoft, People PC, Netzeroto and any internet cooperation to put a C.F.S./FM logo on their website on May 12  

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• Give speeches in schools. Secondary schools in the UK for instance are always desperate for subjects and speakers for PSHE classes. Just sign up to be a member of Diagnose Support via the "Contact us" form, to have access to our powerpoint presentations and lecture notes to go with them! You can use our materials for your presentation and you can use the videos in our media list to help educate people about C.F.S. / M.E. / etc.  
• Use our collection of videos to increase awareness and to explain your illness to your own family and friends. Many patients have spouses, parents or children who find it difficult to deal with their loved one being sick. Understanding it a bit more and knowing that there are more people out there with the same issues might reassure them.

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• Post this list (and preferably our website url) on any messageboard or support group that you belong to.
• Change your email signature line and include our URL so that more people will visit this site and join in the awareness campaign. You can add something eye-catching and brief, such as “Fibromyalgia – Invisible Pain” as a tagline in your emails. This gives any readers an immediate idea of what your illness entails!
• Add Diagnose Support as a friend on Myspace! Just click here to view a list of all our blogs. Occasionally we send out bulletins there when we need information or in case of an event. If you add us on MySpace we will receive your bulletins too and people who visit your space will see us as well. To receive our official newsletters and documentation please sign up as a member of Diagnose Support on the left via the login menu.
  
• Post a bulletin on your MySpace or blog account, directing people to our website and the list of "101 ways to increase awareness".   

This is the first slide of our presentation, just to show an example.

The full presentation is available in English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

If you would like to use our Powerpoint presentation to raise awareness or if you can help Diagnose Support by submitting new awareness materials or translating our awareness materials into another language, please contact us via the "Contact us" option at the top of the page