A LOCAL group is continuing its fight to get people to look past their pre-conceptions about fatigue syndromes ME and FM.
West Berkshire ME and FM group has been campaigning to raise people's awareness of the conditions and to increase services for local sufferers.
It is estimated that 22,500 people have the conditions in the Berkshire West Primary Care Trust area.
There is currently no provision for NHS or conventional treatment of either condition in West Berkshire and sufferers can become very isolated.
The organisation aims to get people together who have been affected by the conditions.
West Berkshire chairwoman Lindsey Middlemiss, herself an FM sufferer, said: "The group is all about raising awareness locally.
"People don't know anything about ME and FM but there are a lot of preconceptions.
"There is a lot of scandal at the moment - a lot of people think it is psychologically caused and so think it is in the sufferers mind."
The group is also working with the Reading Area ME Support Group to campaign for specialist services for people with the condition in Berkshire.
Petitions were launched at the latest awareness event, calling on the MPs of Berkshire to help work towards providing services for people with ME-CFS and FM within the county.
Ms Middlemiss and Eileen Shoosmith of the Reading Area ME Support Group will be meeting with the Berkshire West Primary Care Trust to discuss services for people with ME or FM.
Ms Middlemiss is also personally involved in a campaign which was officially launched last Thursday in Westminster.
Model Bianca Embley, page three pin-up Danni Wells, international hurdler Sara McGreavy and nine other women joined in a photoshoot to raise the profile of FM in the UK.
The women all wore yellow polkadot mini-skirts with white T-shirts spelling out 'Fibromyalgia'.
Bianca Embley, long term sufferer and organiser of the PolkaDotGals campaign, are also set to feature alongside other celebrities and sufferers in a 2009 calendar of tasteful artistic nude shots.
ME (Myalgic Encephalopathy) is a neurological condition characterised by a host of symptoms, including extreme fatigue, achiness and pain, difficulty in thinking, memory loss, digestive problems and problems with the nervous system.
It is also known as CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), ME-CFS and CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue & Immune Dysfunction Syndrome).
Fibromyalgia Syndrome or FM is another neurological condition with very similar symptoms, although the predominant symptom is usually pain.

To find out more about West Berkshire ME and FM group visit www.wbme.org