HISTORY OF THE MEDWAY FIBROMYALGIA SUPPORT GROUP

The group was established by Margaret Robson in September 2002.  The need for the group was identified whilst Margaret was talking to Fibromyalgia patients at the Medway Maritime Hospital.  Margaret was a member, at that time, of the East Kent Support Group that met in Canterbury.  The distance from Medway to Canterbury, and the lack of adequate public transport, meant that many people from the Medway area were unable to attend.

During the time that Margaret was talking on a regular basis to other patients, at the Medway Maritime Hospital with Fibromyalgia, she became aware of the almost total lack of information in the public sphere regarding the condition.

With the support of her husband, Margaret decided to start a Fibromyalgia support group in the Medway Towns.  Originally, it was thought that Medway would be the only focus, however, because there is an overlap regarding medical facilities with Sittingbourne and Sheppey, it was decided that the group should include those areas.

Later, when the group grew larger, it was realised that this was the only group between Medway and North London.  As a consequence of this, the group accommodates people from a far larger area than was originally envisaged.  These people remain on the books until a group starts in their area.

In April 2002 the first meeting took place at a local public house.  There was over 20 people there and the main problem was that people could not get round to talk to others. As the list of people began to grow, Margaret and Ron (her husband) decided that a proper group was needed.  Margaret felt she could just about cope with that as she only expected to have a membership of around 50 at the most. 

She hired a room for a September meeting, in 2002, but a few weeks before the meeting, then realised that the numbers of people interested in coming would not fit into the room.  So she had to make a decision.  She couldn’t get a big enough hall for free so Margaret and Ron decided to pay for the hall themselves.  They had already been paying the costs incurred this far.  The September meeting was so successful that everyone wanted more.  Margaret couldn’t cope with a meeting every month so opted for one every other month with a newsletter in between.  From the September 2002 until December, Ron and Margaret paid all the running costs themselves.  As they are both Christians they looked upon this as part of their giving.

From there it just seemed to fund itself.  There were generous personal donations, raffles at meetings, sales of donated books, a sponsored walk and swim, as well as generous donations from local shops and organisations.

Since those early beginnings, the shape and size of the group has changed.  We currently have over 300 members and we are a registered charity. Over the course of almost a decade some 750 people have been part of our group in one way or another. At our bi-monthly meetings we have at least 50 people, and we send out a bi-monthly newsletter to over 230 people, including funders and professionals.  The Consultants and Physiotherapists at the Medway Maritime Hospital refer patients to us, and others find us via the press releases put out on the radio and in newspapers.  We now also have a Supporters Helpline run by Ron.

CONTACT US !

The Fibromyalgia Support Group (Medway)’s contact details are as follows:

Email address:            FIBROMEDWAY@YAHOO.CO.UK

Telephone:                 01634 865925

Postal address:           Margaret Robson (Co-ordinator)

                                    Fibromyalgia Support Group (Medway)

16 Barberry Avenue

Chatham

Kent

ME5 9TE

England