While it’s undeniable that things aren’t so great right now, 2021 will see the start of something momentous for people with M.E.
There’s a study called Decode ME starting in the Autumn and I for one am excited to see where this might take us. As the website says
“The DecodeME DNA study aims to help us understand the disease and ultimately find treatments.”
There is a wealth of information at www.decodeme.org.uk
The day the study was announced last year, I felt more hope than at any other time in my ten years of illhealth. Someone was bothering to do something for our cause, and with it being UK based it somehow felt far more real than news that comes from research projects abroad.
The pandemic has delayed things slightly but there is an absolutely astounding amount of work going on behind the scenes and there are people with M.E. playing their part in that too.
Like all studies, there is Diagnostic criteria that participants must meet but we all need to sign up before we can find out if our saliva will be used for this DNA study or not.
Once we’ve signed up (I already have!) we just have to wait for that all important green light from the Decode ME team and, if we meet the diagnostic criteria, we’ll be receiving our spit kit saliva test and sending it back to be analysed before we know it.
While the science may be beyond me at times, I am feeling really excited and hopeful about this!
