Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965)
Throughout the last seventeen years, while I was writing my thesis and this book, there have been many people to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude in enabling me to finish my thesis, in July, 2005, and subsequently this book.
I would like to pay tribute to the benefactors, scientists, colleagues, patients, family members, staff and friends who have all played a pivotal role in my years involved with CFS/ME research, culminating in the completion of this publication.
Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to The David and Frederick Barclay Trust for providing the funds for this research. Since the establishment of the Fund for Osteopathic Research into ME (FORME) in February 1995, there have been some exceptional members of the public who have served as trustees of FORME. I thank them all, especially vice-chair and founder Riaz Bowmer, as well as past chairmen Darren Mercer and Chris March. My special thanks go to Ruth Behrend, Kelvin Heywood, Steve Briggs and Sue Peers for their continuing funding and support.
Let me extend my thanks, too, to my first CFS/ME success, Pete, who insisted that I begin this long road of research, and my many patients over the years who have contributed advice, encouragement and research funds. I thank Dr C. Royde, a retired Manchester general practitioner, who, in the early days of my research, gave me encouragement and advice from an orthodox medical perspective and checked my earliest work. Thanks also to Dr Anne Macintyre and to Dr Andrew Wright for their invaluable information and inspiration.
Many thanks to Professor Jack Edwards, who initially took me under his wing in my early years at Salford University’s Department of Orthopaedic Mechanics, for his patience, guidance and for his meticulous checking of my thesis. Thanks, too, to health psychologist Dr Pat Hartley, joint supervisor with Professor Edwards, for her guidance.
My main supervisor during the research, Dr Vic Pentreath, has been a source of immense support and, without his cajoling, positive advice and cheerful disposition, I might never have persevered.
Let me thank Professors Alan Jackson and Jim Richards, who have both imparted a mere fraction of their practical skills and immense knowledge in neuroradiology and biomechanics respectively, which are incalculably useful.
I am also very grateful to the following:
My colleagues Sophie King and Mark Stern, Darren Hayward, at my London and Manchester clinics for coping with years of organised chaos. My secretary Elaine Coleman for her superb clerical and organisational skills and Melissa for modelling her healthy spine. My patients-turned-models for the photographs in this book. My father Bernard Perrin, and my father-in-law Colin Fretwell, for proofreading my original thesis. My nephew, Simon Klein, for his computer skills.
Thanks go to Shirley Trickett and my publisher Georgina Bentliff who both gave me the final encouragement to finish the book, as well as my editor Anne Charlish, and all the staff at Hammersmith Press for helping to bring my work to a much wider audience.
My sons Jonathan, Max and Joshua all deserve a mention as they have had to do part of their growing up with a dad who was often engrossed in his work. Last, but never least, I must pay tribute to my wife Julie who is a true jewel. Through her own long battle with CFS/ME, Julie has empathised with my patients and patiently supported my work week by week, year by year.