Rainbow at shoreline

The Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association, a 501(c)3 founded in 1985, exists to meet the needs of patients with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) or FM (Fibromyalgia), their families and loved ones. The Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association works to educate health-care providers and the general public regarding these severely-disabling physical illnesses. We also support patients and their families and advocate for more effective treatment and research.

Dear Friend,

It is time for our annual funds appeal.  We need your donations to continue supporting people with ME/CFS and FM in Massachusetts and beyond. We had a busy 2020 building our support group program and improving our provider referral process, among other projects, and we have big plans for 2021. Please support us by becoming a member or donating now! Read on for more details about our 2020 activities, our 2021 plans, and why you should give today.

You know how devastating living with ME/CFS and FM can be, and the toll it takes on individuals and families. Now imagine living through COVID-19 but never really “recovering,” instead experiencing debilitating exhaustion after taking a shower or washing the dinner dishes, being unable to read or count change, experiencing disturbed sleep, intermittent sore throat and fever, and unremitting muscle pain. Your doctor says you have recovered and should go back to work or prescribes an exercise program. You are not well enough to go back to work, and any exertion makes your symptoms worse. Many COVID “long-haulers” may develop ME/CFS. Where do they turn?

The Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association has been here to help for over 35 years. Today, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made significant investments in our support group and provider referral programs, and have gone 100% virtual, making our services and programs available to more people.

In 2020, we:

  • Responded to over 150 requests for service, held more than 30 Zoom support and learning groups, hosted 10 small group discussion events with members, and created an online community in Slack
  • Co-sponsored a webinar with Open Medicine Foundation featuring speakers from the Harvard ME/CFS Collaboration
  • Worked with our national partners in awareness and advocacy programs, including support for virtual meetings of more than 30 of our members with the MA congressional delegation and support for HR 7057, Understanding COVID-19 Subsets and ME/CFS Act
  • Sent our monthly newsletter to nearly 2500 people in Massachusetts, across the U.S. and around the world, keeping them up to date on our Association and national activities
  • Hired our first paid staff

But we can, we must, do more - and, with your help, we will. Looking to the future, your generous gift will:

  • Get us ready to serve the untold numbers of COVID-19 long-haulers with increased needs for information, support, referrals, disability insurance information, and more
  • Improve patients’ lives with new groups for support and learning together in community
  • Support patients’ access to care with an updated and expanded physician referral database
  • Ensure informed physician care in Massachusetts by providing doctors with ME/CFS education
  • Expand knowledge for members, health care providers, and the public with a streamlined and optimized website, and access to information in a variety of other ways
  • Improve social services support in Massachusetts through educational events for agencies and providers
  • Make sure that MassME will always be here for those who need us

Our funding comes from generous, committed, individual donors like you. Could you become a member or donate now to help us kick-start our expanded programs in 2021?

Your support for the vision we share inspires our volunteers to continue their hard work on behalf of all people living with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, adding tremendous value to the wonderful work of our professional staff.  But we need to grow to secure the Association’s future to serve a new group of post-COVID patients with ME/CFS-like symptoms. Your generous gift will help create the world we all want: a world where all who live with these devastating conditions live in dignity, community, and better health; a world where ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia are better understood and there are pathways to a cure.

Please make your gift now. You will help so many patients, like Carol, be able to live life to the fullest again.

With gratitude,                              

Leah Williams                 Charmian Proskauer

President                        Past President

P.S. DID YOU KNOW? In 2020, taxpayers who don't itemize deductions may take a charitable deduction of up to $300 for cash contributions made in 2020 to qualifying organizations.

P.P.S. Would you make yours a monthly gift? Just $12, $18, or $25 a month would make a world of difference!

P.P.P.S! Other ways to give – Contact Us for more information

  • Double or triple your gift with matching contributions from your or your spouse’s employer
  • Give directly from your IRA or Donor Advised Fund
  • Make Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association a beneficiary in your will or trust
  • Select MassME as your charity in Amazon Smile (see our website) or other retail charity program
  • Donate a car, boat or other vehicle

Notice about names

The Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association would like to clarify the use of the various acronyms for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Chronic Fatigue & Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and  Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) on this site. When we generate our own articles on the illness, we will refer to it as ME/CFS, the term now generally used in the United States. When we are reporting on someone else’s report, we will use the term they use. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies, including the CDC, are currently using ME/CFS. 

Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association changed its name in July, 2018, to reflect this consensus.