MCSI was formed as a result of an overwhelming desire expressed by people to establish a MCS society. With the assistance of the Environmental Law Centre (ELC), a registered charity specialising in human rights, environmental law, family law and health, we were successfully formed in 2002. Working in collaboration with ELC, our priority is to raise awareness of MCS as an increasingly common disease.
Our primary role is to act as an information centre to promote awareness of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and to help sufferers’ access information which will help to raise their quality of life and reduce their suffering.
MCS is an isolating illness, physically and often emotionally. It is also a debilitating illnesses which has no physical characteristics. Our objectives are many but our main goal is to help sufferers and their families regain the quality of life that MCS has denied them and in the process help MCS sufferers find their voice. In the short term our aim is to provide and collate information which will assist MCS sufferers towards this goal; to establish a MCS society, to make contact, to establish this web page for the dissemination of information and an advice column, and form self –help groups forming a network offering help and advice.
We appreciate the problems faced by sufferers of MCS and other related syndromes CFS, MS, ME Gulf War Syndrome, EMF and others. As sufferers ourselves or having family members who suffer we appreciate the mass of untapped experience and understanding out there isolated by an often unrecognised illness. We want recognition, and we want to be able to benefit fellow sufferers.
We are currently applying for a grant from the EU. With the help of this grant and we hope to help sufferers reach a better quality of life and eventually to provide an environment in which they can socialise and meet. We also aim to provide training for careers in their better understand on the needs of suffers. It is also hoped to educate suffers whose illness can be contained by management of their environment.
By raising awareness of MCS we will be able to promote awareness of this debilitating condition and most importantly provide preventative information so individuals and families are not struck down by this terrible illness. We intend to provide SUFFERERS with self-help strategies and support as well as information on how to cope with daily life and provide a vehicle by which an exchange of experiences and individual achievements. We also hope that, as in the USA, the UK medical profession will recognise MCS as a 21st Century illness.
MCSI will undertake a campaign role by bringing the condition of MCS to both Government and medical bodies in order to have MCS recognised as an illness related to the environment we live and work in. We intend to seek support from WHO, EU, and national governments to assist in raising the awareness and acceptance of MCS.
Of importance is to collate statistical evidence which can be put forward to these political and medical bodies. We need to develop a research programme into the causes and consequences of MCS. MCS has to develop credibility in this country if it is to achieve ‘legitimacy’ and recognition. Only after recognition will authorities take MCS on board as a condition which will affect your rights to disablement benefits among others.
Clearly by increasing the understanding of the syndrome by the public and medical professionals alike, sufferers of MCS can be protected from exposure to those chemicals in their own environments that cause problems. We will assist sufferers return to a quality of life and health that enables them to work and to reach a reasonable standard of living and to get away from the inappropriate and unnecessary medications often prescribed.
We need you and your support whether you are a victim of MCS or not, to ask your MP to support our aim and to put a bill through Parliament.
If you do not know what MCS is please visit our information page to learn more. MCS is an equal opportunity calamity, it could happen to you; anytime, anyplace, anywhere!