The ME Association has made the following release:

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Final nail in the coffin for co-proxamol?
New research published early on-line in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology looks as though it may be the 'final nail in the coffin' for co-proxamol - a combination analgesic that some people who have moderate to severe pain find very helpful.

Co-proxamol has been almost withdrawn from prescription use following concerns earlier in the year about the fact that overdose with this drug is far more likely to be fatal than with other similar analgesics.

In July, government health minister Caroline Flint stated in parliament that GPs may need to continue prescribing co-proxamol on a named patient basis for the minority of patients who have gone through all the alternatives - which include other types of paracetamol and opiod combinations.

But this new research from Edinburgh, which concluded that 290 deaths could be avoided each year by terminating the prescribing of co-proxamol, means that any relaxation of the restrictions now seems highly unlikely.

The ME Association is continuing to monitor the situation regarding co-proxamol, and if you have any personal experiences relating to withdrawal of this drug please let send an email by clicking on this link: ME Connect


Dr Charles Shepherd
ME Association

Hi everyone

Recently, some great suggestions have been made on the 'What Would Like To See?' boards at the Forum. Many are ideas that we'd like to implement at some point, but due to costs and manpower, we have had to put them on hold. :(

In fact, there are many ways in which we'd like to expand Sleepydust - to give you even more fantastic features, benefits and information. But up until now however we have only been running a bare minimum in terms of 'income generating options' thoughout Sleepydust...

As you may or may not know, at the moment I fund all costs related to Sleepydust myself. We do have very basic monetizing options scattered throughout the site, and this does help a little with costs.

But this of course means that we have been limited in what terms of the services and benefits we can provide on Sleepydust for you, and I think it has now come to a time where perhaps we really do need to start rolling out some more income generators.

Recently, two posts have 'perked' my attention:

Many other Sleepydusters have expressed their thoughts regarding a chat room too, and this is definitely something that we would like to introduce on the website in the future.

Unfortunately though, [aside from the need for more manpower if this were to go ahead], good quality chat room software is very expensive, and I'm afraid we just don't have the funds to support such a project at the moment. :(

As you may or may not know, at present all costs for Sleepydust come out of Claire's own pocket - we don't receive any outside funding from other organisations or from charity comissions etc. :(

But we do have plans to start raising money at some point, by selling ebooks and other goods, [via an eshop], on Sleepydust. So the idea of a chat room is something that we hope to include once we're financially in a position to be able to do so. :)

And then Meg kindly replied:

Excellent Jo - thanks for your post on the future!

No, I certainly didn't know about Claire's amazing commitment to this site. Of course I knew about all the hours of work - but financially too??

The eshop sounds a great idea. If us lot are buying things then I for one would much prefer for part of this purchase to go towards the funding of new items on the Sleepydust website eg the chat room for a great example.

Thanks again - as far as I'm concerned you and Claire are doing a fab job!!!

Well first of all, thank you Meg :) . Your words of support and encouragement warmed my heart!

This is actually something that Neil (one of our Forum Moderators) has recommended to me a while ago, and I'm not quite sure why I haven't done this before because it seems so obvious now. I can't believe I actually haven't told about you how you can help support us - doh!

[Unfortunately I often get too distracted by other sleepydust stuff - whoops!]


So How Can You Help Us To Help You?

Ah - I'm glad you asked... ;)

At the moment, there are small ways in which you can help support the work we do on Sleepydust. Every little helps and we would really be grateful for any support you can give us.

Here's a copy of my reply to Meg & co. on the other thread:

I'll be working on getting some 'more substantial' monetizing options running soon.

In the mean time there are small ways you can help us (if you like). It's not much, but whenever you click on the links below, and then buy from that shop online, we do receive a small contribution. And as I keep saying, every little helps! :)

Here are the links:

1) If you ever buy anything from Amazon in the USA (amazon.com) , please help us by clicking through on this link:

http://www.sleepydust.net/amazon-com


2) If you ever buy anything from Amazon in the UK (amazon.co.uk), please help us by clicking through on this link:

http://www.sleepydust.net/amazon-co-uk

These links have Sleepydust's 'affiliate code' attached to it, so if you click on that link and then buy something from the US or UK Amazon website, we will receive a small contribution. Not much, but as I mentioned above, every little helps in running this site.

Also...

3) If you ever buy anything from the shop at Immune Support, we'd be ever so grateful if you could click through to them on this link:

http://www.sleepydust.net/immune-support

Again, this link has Sleepydust's affiliate code attached to it, so if you click on that link and then buy something from Immune Support, we will receive a small contribution.

Thank you everyone for your wonderful support!