Please help us by emailing letters to this list of editors every month. This is all about the numbers of different people sending letters and how persistent we are.

 
Letters to the Editor email contacts:

Please send them individually, as they don't like to carry letters presented in other papers:
The Globe and Mail:   Click here
The National Post:   Click here
Victoria Times Colonist:   Click here
The Province (BC):   Click here
Vancouver Sun:   Click here
Edmonton Journal:   Click here
Calgary Herald:   Click here
Regina Leader-Post:   Click here
The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon):   Click here
Winnipeg Free Press:   Click here
The Windsor Star Group Inc.:   Click here
London Free Press:   Click here
St. Catharines Standard:  Click here
Toronto Star:   Click here
Toronto Sun:   Click here
The Kingston Whig-Standard:   Click here
The Ottawa Citizen:   Click here
Montreal Gazette:   Click here
Daily Gleaner, Telegraph Journal, Times & Transcript (NB):   Click here
Halifax Chronicle Herald:   Click here
The Telegram (NL):   Click here

 
Here are five letters on various issues:
You can craft your own letter,   You can put your name at the bottom.   We'd love to hear about your help!

Generally the rules are that letters should be no more than 200 words, must include the writer's full name, address and daytime phone number, and be in good taste. The newspaper will call you to confirm you sent the letter, and won't use it if they don't speak with you.

 
Chronic Pain Physician Shortage
Despite all the changes to health care, one fact remains painfully clear: Canada has a severe shortage of chronic pain specialists.

The waiting lists for the few chronic pain specialists knowledgeable about Fibromyalgia are measured in years.   Some patients have never seen a chronic pain physician, let alone the range of specialists they need to see.

Fibromyalgia causes chronic unexplained pain in more than a dozen points in the soft tissue and muscle, and is accompanied by fatigue, a weakened immune system and undesired cognitive changes.

85% of the million Fibromyalgia patients in Canada are women, most getting the illness in their 20's and 30's.   We need to train more physicians to take care of Canada's mothers and we need to learn what causes this illness and how to avoid it.

 
Drug use not always possible
Canada has more than one million people, mainly adult women, Canada's mothers, battling Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Typically, these fine people take a wide range of pills every day, some take hundreds per month.   For various reasons, not all patients can take pills all the time.

To help our mothers to deal with widespread pain without pills Provincial Governments need to offer Medicare coverage for non-pharmalogical services such as physiotherapy, massage, and chiropratic treatment, among others.   The lack of non-pharmalogical care coverage inherently pushes our mothers to take drugs.

Perhaps there is a better way?

 
Worried no one is worried
Canada has focussed alot of attention on SARS, West Nile, Aids, and other health risks.

But suprisingly, there is barely any research being done to determine what causes Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There have been outbreaks of CFS.

We're close to knowing what causes the illnesses, there is effective treatment and better if one intervenes early, but there's no cure yet. More than one million Canadians are afflicted. More than 30,000 new patients every year.

The economic fall-out, the social costs, the personal tragedies, are all reason enough to invest in research. How to prevent it, how to remedy it better, how to end it.

But isn't anyone worried about an illness that affects so many without any of us knowing how?

 
Needed change
The one million Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome patients in Canada need change to the health systems.

We need better coverage of non-drug therapies for our pain, fatigue and cognitive challenges.

We need physicians to be informed about the illness.

We need every patient to get the benefit of advice from a team of specialists, not just whomever they can find.

Canada needs to wake up before the next generation of Canadians falls to FM & CFS with so little support.

 
Focus on 5 health priorities hurts everyone else

More than one million Canadians battle Fibromyalgia and or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, two painful and disabling chronic illnesses. The wait times to find a family physician or a specialist are measured in years. They may not die, but they worsen without treatment. They also face two-tier health care as most of their therapies are not covered. Canada can not afford to focus on just a few health conditions, as illnesses like FM & CFS cost Canada billions of dollars every year and could fare better with a fraction of the attention given to the 5 priorities the Liberals set out. Let's hope the Conservatives think about the big picture.