Stripy Lightbulb CIC is not affiliated to any particular M.E./C.F.S. charity and this decision was not taken lightly by our Directors. As you will see when you take part in our e-training, M.E./C.F.S. is a complex condition that is surrounded by wide-ranging complicated social and economic issues. This means that each individual charity and advocacy group has its own viewpoint, agenda, or priorities. By matching our standpoint to an individual charity or advocate group, we will be setting ourselves against other viewpoints. This won’t be beneficial to the M.E./C.F.S. community and will simply add to the debate and confusion. We don’t want that and so will always be an independent social enterprise.
Our e-training is education rather than advocacy and we felt it important to highlight the wider context so professionals (healthcare, education, business) can understand that M.E./C.F.S. is a lot more than just a health condition. We have used and referenced resources from a wide range of different charities and organisations from around the globe within our courses to provide a wider view of M.E./C.F.S.
Stripy Lightbulb CIC chose Cure M.E at the M.E. Biobank, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as the beneficiary of our surplus (profit) as they are a wonderful organisation with a good reputation that contributes to many research studies across Europe. We particularly like their focus on biomedical research.
As we said in our previous blog, Stripy Lightbulb CIC’s founder and Managing Director Sally Callow has had M.E/C.F.S. twice, during her teenage years and as an adult, she has had M.E./C.F.S for the past 12 years. She has also been an M.E./C.F.S. advocate since 2014 and has had thousands of conversations with patients, families, and charities during that time. Sally undertook a teaching course last year to ensure that the e-training she created with Stripy Lightbulb CIC was effective and to ensure that learning takes place. Our courses are now also CPD accredited. Sally has said from the outset that being an M.E/C.F.S. patient does not make her medically trained, she does not understand medical jargon and doesn’t expect learners to either. Our training is as medical jargon-free as possible but where it is unavoidable, Sally has translated it into layman’s terms. Scientific research is also provided and translated. We need our learners to understand the current situation, not be baffled by it.
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