CFS Research Foundation

supporting high quality research aimed at understanding CFS / ME and its treatment

It is estimated that there are some 240,000 people in the United Kingdom suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the illness which is usually known as ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis).

What is chronic fatigue syndrome?

Chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers experience overwhelming exhaustion of both muscle and mind, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, muscle pain, migraine and insomnia. A special feature of CFS is that the condition waxes and wanes; this can occur within an hour, a day or over a period of years.

There is, at present, no cure.

About the CFS Research Foundation

The CFS Research Foundation was officially launched in 1993 to bring together the best minds to meet the challenge presented by chronic fatigue syndrome, encouraging basic research into the body mechanisms that lead to and continue the illness.

From the outset, the Foundation�s Research Committee decided that it would only support research of the highest scientific calibre. The CFS Research Foundation has funded or is funding sixteen research projects in British universities and medical schools.

Current research projects include a study comparing the activity of genes in people with CFS / ME with those in a control group of healthy people, to discover why the immune system is chronically activated in patients with CFS / ME. Once we find the reasons for this, we can target it with appropriate drug therapies.

The CFS Research Foundation is dependent entirely on donations from grant-making trusts and from individuals. In the present financial climate our task is daunting. All our donors receive updated newsletters containing information on our research projects. You can download a donation form (19k PDF file) to print and fill out.

There is now, at last, every hope that we can look forward to, first therapies, then a cure for this disease. But we must redouble our efforts to fund scientific studies to make this possible.