Waiting for Superman: A debilitating illness & the search for a cure

For the past six years, Whitney Dafoe has been confined to a bedroom in the back of his parents' home, unable to walk, eat or speak. His diagnosis? The mysterious disease myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) which affects 20 million people around the world who largely suffer in silence because the condition is little known and much misunderstood.

Waiting for Superman follows Whitney's father, groundbreaking geneticist Ron Davis, as he uncovers new possibilities for treatments and potentially a cure. At its heart, this book is about more than just cutting-edge research or a race to find an answer - it's about the lengths to which a parent will go to save their child's life.

If you're a fan of medical memoir or commited to disability justice, then this is the event for you.

This event will begin with an interview of author Tracie White, followed by a conversation with Dr Ron Davies and Dr Janet Dafoe - all dialling in from California for this hugely important and timely event.

Speakers:

Tracie White is an award-winning journalist and a science writer for Stanford University. Her work, which has garnered 23 writing awards, has also appeared in Salon, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and more. She graduated from UC Berkley and has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

Ronald W. Davis, PhD, has been called one of the world's greatest living inventors by the Atlantic. He is a professor of Biochemistry and Genetics at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center. He has won numerous awards for his research, including the Gruber Prize in genetics for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of genomics. He now is devoted to finding a cure for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

Janet Dafoe, PhD, received her degree from Stanford University and then became a licensed clinical psychologist, specializing in ADHD, Asperger's, anxiety, and depression, while raising two children with her husband Ronald Davis. When her son Whitney Dafoe became ill with ME/CFS, she began to care for him at home and today is an advocate and fundraiser for the ME/CFS community.

Host: Erin Williamson lives in Edinburgh. She has a background in English Literature and currently studies Spanish. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome following a diagnosis of ME in 2003 and was very severely affected for 10 years. She likes to credit books with almost everything short of curing her.