MRC & biomedical research

Well, well, well: the MRC is giving £1.5 million to ME research. Discussion over at MEA. And biomedical research is being debated in House of Commons on Wed 2 Feb at 4pm, led by Lib Dem MP Ian Swales (not all Lib Dems have lost the plot!). This will be interesting - I hope it is well attended. Should be on BBC Parliament. I wrote to my MP yesterday asking him if he would be attending. I also wrote three years ago expressing my fears about NICE and the MRC and the lack of biomedical research. I got a very lengthy response via the then health minister Alan Johnson. Alan assured me the MRC gave consideration to all high quality applications. He seems like a nice guy so maybe he just didn't know the truth. Let's hope things are really changing. With all that is going on in Egypt it is hard not to feel fired up, not to believe that resistance can bring about change (though Mubarak's hanging on). We thankfully live in a democracy but those of us with ME have been living under a bizarre medical dictatorship for too long. It's all about the imbalance of power. I hope the MRC is not just making an expedient gesture and it actually believes in robust biomedical research into ME. I wish I was (were? I'm never sure about the subjunctive) not nagged by doubt.

Also, want to say that Mischa Hiller's second novel is out. It's called Shake Off. Mischa's website is here. (Mischa has ME and it is quite fabulous that he has a second book out.) He also writes about the imbalance of power.