The following excerpt is from Kickstarter. (Click on the video to watch the trailer.)
THE BLUE RIBBON is a film exposing the hidden story of ME/CFS. It features interviews with top researchers, doctors, and activists.
"ME/CFS is the great under-reported medical story of the times." Llewellyn King, host of PBS's White House Chronicle and columnist for the New York Times-Hearst Syndicate.
The story of this film begins with a story I wrote for USA TODAY about my struggle with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) over the last 6 years. The response to the article marked me deeply. People from all over the world wrote in describing the pain of living with the illness. Many talked of decades unable to work or even to participate in normal life.
Patients feel a constant, unrelenting exhaustion that is unrelieved by sleep, rest, or exercise. Because there is no treatment, they are often disabled.
I started to feel a moral calling for an in-depth creative and journalistic investigation into the roots of this illness; it was a calling to give these unheard voices a forum to speak to a world that has neglected them for far too long. I firmly believe that the first step to improving these lives is for greater global awareness of ME/CFS. Only then can we receive more research research funding and remove the sad stigma that often prevents a frank international conversation beginning at all. This film is the best way of doing that.