FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

Mitch Messer

Welcome to all of our CFW Newsletter readers. My name is Mitch Messer and I have the honour of being the current CFW President. I was elected at the Annual General Meeting in Crete following the resignation of Herman Weggen.

I would like to pay special tribute to Herman. Herman provided strong leadership and dedication to CFW and its predecessor the ICF(M)A. He has left big shoes to fill, however I am not trying to fill them on my own, but have the help and support of a very hard working board, volunteers and staff. I would also like to pay tribute to Gina Steenkamer who for the past 5 years was our Office Manager in the Netherlands. Late in 2005, Gina left us to take up a new position and we wish her well. Our office in Eindhoven is still there and our sponsor Van Aarle de Laat has agreed to continue to provide us with the office and operating functions as they have in the past.

You may know that the CFW Newsletter has grown out of the IACFA Newsletter, following the merger of the 2 International CF organisations in 2003. CFW has worked extremely hard to ensure the Newsletter is relevant and accessible to our readers through increasing the range of material and articles and also making it
more widely accessible in multiple languages on our website. I hope that we can continue providing an important source of information for the CF community, and I know the editorial team would be pleased to receive any feedback you may have to help us continue to improve it.

To that end, I would urge all readers to renew their subscriptions for 2006. We will try to provide the Newsletter in the way you wish to receive it, be that in hard copy or online. One CFW’s biggest expenses is posting the newsletters to approximately 5000 addresses worldwide. We will be investigating ways to make sure that we do this in the most efficient way possible and hope that you will support us with your subscription.

CFW is also continuing its work to improve and develop CF services in those parts of the world that do not have access to even basic CF care. We are working with a number of our members in this area and continuing to develop relationships with other CF organisations such as the European CF Society (ECFS) and the World Health Organization (WHO). One of our projects is to get pancreatic enzymes included on the WHO list of essential medicines, which is used by many countries to help decide which medicines they should supply. Currently enzymes are not included, which can have drastic consequences to those for whom they are essential.

I would like to wish all of our readers and supporters a healthy and peaceful 2006 and look forward to being able to work with you all in helping those whose lives are affected by CF no matter where they live.

Best Wishes,
Mitch Messer

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