Forum Publishing
Welcome...
My name is Linda Sheppard and I would like to welcome you to our website, the purpose of which is to bring awareness to others of the debilitating illness, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and to let you know what you can do to help keep our CFS/M.E Support Forum, up and running.
So, what is CFS/ME?
Think back to the worst dose of flu you’ve ever had - not a bad cold but the real thing. I’m talking about the sort of flu that makes it almost impossible to get out of bed in the morning - sometimes it IS impossible. I’m talking about the sort of flu that leaves you totally exhausted and ill when all you’ve done is walk a few yards. I’m talking about the sort of flu that overwhelms your joints and muscles with excruciating pain, the sort that fills your head with cotton wool so that if you try to read a book, the words mingle confusingly then swim off the page, leaving you feeling dizzy and sick.
Imagine these symptoms not lasting seven or ten days as with the flu, but for year after miserable year. How would you cope?
The above is just touching on the symptoms of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) Fibromyalgia, Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome (PVFS) - please see SYMPTOMS for a more comprehensive list. As all these "labels" have very similar characteristics, for simplicity’s sake I’ll use CFS/ME as a catch-all.
The terminology of this range of illnesses may vary and change with time, but the condition itself doesn’t. Although there’s a low to high range of severity, it has the potential to destroy its victims’ hopes and dreams. It can genuinely ruin the lives of sufferers, carers and families. It’s an insidious, evil illness.
It is estimated that there are around a quarter of a million CFS/ME sufferers in the UK alone. CFS/ME can affect men, women and children of any age, but commonly strikes between ages twenty to forty.
To-date, what causes CFS/ME is unknown.
So, who is Forum Publishing?
We are a group of individuals who work hard to publish Roger’s books on Amazon’s Kindle bookshelf. Agapanthus, our employment and benefits advisor, is Forum Publishing’s editor, her job being to seek and destroy any typing errors etc in the original transcripts. My job is to tussle with the many technical issues that arise whilst uploading the books to KDP Amazon and to plan marketing and promotions etc. Last but not least, Roger Knowles himself, who has the gift of involving the reader in his character’s lives, thus providing a great read.
We are non-profit making. When you read that on a website, it often means no profits after providing the owners and staff with hefty salaries and perks, but that isn’t the case here. The staff and I are all CFS/ME sufferers or carers, and we work to help others in the same position as us on a totally voluntary basis. But sadly, substantial running and maintenance costs do exist on a website like ours, and to meet these costs we rely entirely on voluntary support from visitors and forum members. So the purpose of this website is to ask for your help to maintain our website by supporting our new venture….
Forum Publishing was established to publish Roger’s Knowles’ books, as 50% of any sales proceeds go straight to our forum funds thereby enabling us to continue our support understanding and advice provision to the hundreds of thousands of UK Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers, along with many from overseas.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a widely misunderstood but totally debilitating disease, and sufferers really do need such support, understanding and advice to survive.
With this in mind, I hope that you might consider supporting our venture by submerging yourself in a Roger Knowles novel, thereby helping to keep our support network in place for those who are struggling to understand their debilitating illness, and feeling totally isolated and frustrated as they try to cope.
Each book published under the "Forum Publishing" label costs just £1.96p including VAT, so they are not expensive. Therefore, if you enjoy reading a good novel, not only do you get an excellent book to read, you also get one at a great price that provides funds to help keep our CFS/ME Support Forum, up and running.
Forum Publishing has published six books on the Kindle platform, so with luck there is something for everyone. Our hope is that regular sales will ensure long term financial stability for the CFS Website and Forum. The books are - Broken Cats & Cowboy Hats, The Naked Emperor, To Be A Man, The Association, Day of Reckoning and The Cupboard Under The Stairs.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and please, take a look at our selection of fantastic and cost effective books…
