It is a pleasure to join with the staff of all Arthritis Divisions in the country, with our sponsors: APS New Zealand, members of the Auckland and North Shore Fibromyalgia committees and your editorial staff to wish you season’s greetings for 1999.

What an exciting year - beginning a newsletter to support all people with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in New Zealand, or FM and CFS as we call it !

Thank you for the tremendous feedback for the first issue of ‘Positive Living’ and to those who sent donations and letters. Copies were taken to the National Conference of the Arthritis Foundation in Wellington during September and circulated to all delegates. From here they were taken to all divisions and spread out to FM groups. Hopefully most of the people with FM have now seen a copy. Remember to write to us for your copy and to be put on the mailing list.

This Christmas issue is supplementary to ‘Positive Living’ - your six-monthly newsletter which is now circulating to people in Nelson, Akaroa, Rotorua, Wellington, Waikato, Taupo, as far south as Timaru, Oamaru and Invercargill, east to Tauranga, north to Waipu, as well as to our own groups here in Auckland and North Shore. Every day I receive another new name to add to the growing list of people.

Many thanks to the Field Officers who are actively ensuring word gets around, the SLE, Sjogren’s Syndrome and Post-Polio groups who have made their members aware of our existence; and The National Office of the Arthritis Foundation who kindly inserted a notice in their latest newsletter.

I also thank you for showing your doctors our first issue. Long-term, we hope to extend our mailout to doctors as we feel this is the most appropriate way of bringing our illness, latest research and new methods of coping to their attention.

Next year, Dr Anthony Gear, a National Board member for the Arthritis Foundation and a Rheumatologist with a special interest in Fibromyalgia, will review all copy for medical accuracy before mailout to members. This is a great step forward. Thank you Dr Gear

Before I close, Pam, members and every one on the FMS committee sincerely wish Meg Cull our very best wishes for the future. Meg is off to Christchurch at the end of January to be with husband Nelson who has been promoted. Meg has been a fantastic support volunteer to the group and we are extremely sorry to lose you Meg. Our loss is certainly a gain for Christchurch. Thank you Meg.

Also high on our thank you list for a successful year are our sponsors - The Auckland Arthritis Foundation and APS New Zealand, in particular managers Francesca, Werner and Garth without whose support our FM group and this newsletter would not be a reality.

My personal thanks also go to Trish, Susan, Mike and Pam along with Wendy on the Shore. This has been a tremendous year for the group with undreamed of progress in our newsletter objectives because of their ability to dream and put it into action. Congratulations team!