A recent release by the Tymes Trust:

THE YOUNG ME SUFFERERS TRUST

YOUNG HEARTS DAY 2005 : REMEMBERING CHILDREN WITH ME

Tuesday 29 November is Young Hearts Day, inaugurated by The Young ME Sufferers Trust in 2004, in tribute to children with ME.

This year the Trust is urging people to light candles as a symbolic call for research to shed light on the illness that has crippled so many.

Jane Colby, a former severe ME sufferer and Executive Director of the Trust, is author of the biggest study of ME world-wide. She said:

"Our children are so brave. They may be constantly in pain, too weak to eat, fed through a tube and forgotten by friends. Many still face hostility from doctors and teachers who do not understand their illness. The world needs high quality medical research into this terrible disease. The Trust is helping to fund the first biomedical study in children, but this is a drop in the ocean. Government funding is necessary."

Exactly one year ago, Terry Waite CBE launched the book Young Hearts for the first Young Hearts Day. A unique collection of inspirational poetry by children and young people with ME between the ages of 7 and 26, it was inspired by Jade Louise Scarrott, a 14-year-old member of the Trust who was tragically killed in a road accident. It was completed by the Trust and
fully illustrated in her memory.

In his Foreword, Terry Waite wrote, "Life is not fair and often we cannot understand it. Suffering comes to all of us but not in equal degree. Some certainly suffer more than others through no fault of their own. All we can say with certainty is that so very often something creative can emerge from the deepest grief."

To see Young Hearts, go to www.tymestrust.org

ME is a disabling neurological illness thought to affect 25,000 children in the UK. It is the biggest cause of long term sickness absence from school.