Channel 4 News 19 February 2024: Features Clare Norton, mother of Merryn Crofts

I thought it was very well done indeed.

Merryn's mother, Sonya Chowdhury and Sean O'Neil were given the chance to be very clear and informative. The presenters seemed intelligent and sympathetic. The stuff on the history and politics was covered pretty well.

I don't think one can ask for better than this.
 
Just watched the piece (half way through the programme), it is very good and thanks to Clare Norton and Sean O’Neill who gave very compelling contributions. The focus of the piece was the failure of much of the NHS to take this biomedical condition seriously, the harm arising from inappropriate psychologising of the condition and the desperate need for research into ME and ME like Long Covid. Also raised the issue of high levels of suicide and inappropriate child protection cases.

Deeply moving piece, and having the watched the full news before with pieces on Russia, Ukraine and Gaza too I am now shattered.

I would have liked to see something also about PEM and the damage from inappropriate exertion, but very good to see severe ME accurately portrayed.

[Added - I teared up during the piece and reviewing it my mind I am now crying again, partly because it is perhaps the clearest and most honest piece on ME I have seen on British mainstream TV news.]
 
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Wow. Just watched it and it was amazingly sympathetic, couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was presented as being critical to the idea that ME was a made-up illness or 'all in the mind', but that it is rather a real physiological condition that is triggered off in some people after a virus. As Jonathan (ETA: and Peter, with whom I crossposted!) said, the people interviewed came across very well and were very informative.

I kept waiting for Wessely or similar to be trotted out to provide 'balance', but to my shock and to Channel 4's credit, that did not occur. It really was an impressive surprise. Kudos to Channel 4 for such a quality report.
 
Crossposted with others. I agree it was the best TV coverage I've seen.

I watched the segment on ME/CFS. I thought it was good. Merryn Crofts' mother spoke movingly of their experiences raising particularly the issues of medical disbelief and social workers and safeguarding issues, Sonya Chowdhury from Action for ME spoke well in a couple of short clips, there was a brief clip of a patient with a doctor who believes in ME, and Sean O'Neill spoke about Maeve's upcoming inquest. There was also discussion of the government's as yet unpublished delivery plan.
I think the key messages that came across were that ME is physical not mental, that there's a huge problem of clinicians disbelieving it, and the need for more research.
 
John Mac said:
I think if it had been on the BBC that might well have happened. Wessely was always their ME goto guy.
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I suspect we will see damage limitation from the BSP cabal: saying they never denied there was a physical illness, pedalling false sympathy for the severe end of ME but repeating the importance of hope and that for the mild and moderate activity management and psychological support is vital to create chance for improvement.

Let’s hope this report is part of an ongoing groundswell for recognition of the reality of ME. As Sean O’Neill said there is hope that his daughter’s inquest will promote further recognition and change for the very severe.
 
It was amazing. I teared up as well at the honesty that was put across. All through the piece I was expecting it to then turn and put the other side of the story as has always happened in the past. I can’t find the words to describe how happily astonished I am that they didn’t do this. It truly is devoted to ME in its physical form, and to have such a long segment will no doubt ruffle a lot of feathers.
 
Lets hope that Krishnan & Sean had a nice chat off camera too. I could see that KGM was wanting to hear some actual horrifying comments from Drs/Nurses, but i imagine Sean was having to be wise about what he said for all kinds of reasons.
Is there a repository somewhere of egregious comments made to PwME by clinicians? If not we should make one, but i imagine its difficult on tv/in print because of accusations of slander etc.

You can bet the BPSers are planning a rebuttal... wonder how long it'll take. It will i imagine be along the lines of 'dualism poo poo' we never said we didnt believe the suffering was real. blah blah.
 
JemPD said:
Lets hope that Krishnan & Sean had a nice chat off camera too. I could see that KGM was wanting to hear some actual horrifying comments from Drs/Nurses, but i imagine Sean was having to be wise about what he said for all kinds of reasons.
Is there a repository somewhere of egregious comments made to PwME by clinicians? If not we should make one, but i imagine its difficult on tv/in print because of accusations of slander etc.

You can bet the BPSers are planning a rebuttal... wonder how long it'll take. It will i imagine be along the lines of 'dualism poo poo' we never said we didnt believe the suffering was real. blah blah.
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They may decide to seize upon the colloquial use of ‘real’ by a grieving father, but I doubt it will go terribly well for them if they do.
 
I liked the ME Dr Tarek (couldn’t see his name under my subtitles) who said something about - we don’t know how to treat dementia, we don’t know how to treat 90% of neurological disorders but we don’t say they don’t exist, sorry we’re not going to help
 
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