ME/CFS Awareness Week 2025 – Emerge Australia

ME/CFS Awareness 2025
Tuesday 8 May – Monday 12 May

This year ME/CFS Awareness Week will run from Tuesday 6 May and culminating on ME/CFS Awareness Day – Monday 12 May and focus around the theme of pace.

ME/CFS Awareness Week will showcase a new podcast season, ME/CFS Excellence in Journalism Awards and an online Symposium on Wednesday 7 May at 2pm AEST.

Emerge Australia will again be participating in Blue Tea for ME. Create your own Blue Sunday Tea Party as a special fundraising event – online or in person – where you can enjoy a soothing cup of tea and favourites treats while making a difference to the lives of so many Australians. Find out more and donate here.

We Need to Talk About Living With ME/CFS - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Online Symposium with Emerge Australia

ME/CFS Awareness Week - Wednesday 7 May, 2pm AEST

01 HOST

Anne Wilson

Chief Executive Officer, Emerge Australia

Anne is an accomplished NFP CEO with a former focus in respiratory and renal health, and a track record engaging stakeholders and building capacity across advocacy, education, research and service delivery.

Anne’s current focus is dedicated to empowering Australians impacted by ME/CFS and long COVID. A graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business NFP Leadership Program, Anne’s qualifications span degrees in Human Services and Adolescent Health.

In 2008, Anne was recognised as the NFP Network Association CEO of the Year, and currently is Director and Secretary/Treasurer of the International Kidney Cancer Coalition.

02 Introducing

Tracey Spicer AM

Walkley Award winning author, journalist and broadcaster

Tracey is a multiple Walkley Award winning author, journalist and broadcaster who has anchored national programs for ABC TV and radio, Network Ten and Sky News.

The inaugural national convenor of Women in Media, Tracey is one of the most sought-after on stage and online keynote speakers and emcees in Australia.

In 2019 she was named the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year, accepted the Sydney Peace Prize alongside Tarana Burke for the Me Too movement, and won the national award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership through Women & Leadership Australia.

03 Introducing

Sarah vizer

AUTHOR, SPEAKER, AND CERTIFIED EXECUTIVE COACH

Sarah is a Brisbane based author, speaker, and certified executive coach. Through her personal journey, she has embraced a life that values balance, self-awareness, and resilience. Sarah inspires others by sharing actionable insights and practical strategies for managing fatigue. Her new book, ‘Too Tired to Think’, is an intersection of hope and reality for those who battle long-term fatigue, and their carers.

04 Introducing

Bloom

Amanda Canzurlo Singer/Songwriter, recording artist, living with ME/CFS

Amanda was diagnosed with glandular fever at the age of 16. After being bedridden for approximately 8-10 weeks she was then diagnosed with ME/CFS. Back then, before Facebook and widespread internet use, there wasn’t much easily accessible research, patient information or support services.

For over a decade Amanda went to a range of different healthcare practitioners seeking answers. “Holding down a full-time job in my early 20’s was a struggle. I would be asleep by 7.30pm after a full day, or need to try and rest during lunch breaks. Sometimes I would have to go home half way through the day because I just didn’t have the energy to get through.”

Amanda says that her memory has improved over time, but that managing her energy envelope was the hardest aspect of the disease. “I am now a full-time touring artist. My lifestyle is much like shift work and I need to listen to my body and pace. It was a long road to get to the version of myself today and I am still a work-in-progress as I still have to actively manage my ME/CFS, but when I heard about the great work Emerge Australia was doing I wanted to help.”

05 Introducing

ELIZA CHARLEY

ACTRESS, WRITER, PRODUCER, LIVING WITH ME/CFS

Eliza Charley is an Australian actress, writer, and producer dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices, especially women and those living with chronic disease.

Known for feature films The Fort (2022) and Time Apart (2020), she also starred in award-winning short films The Falling (2016) and Sweat (2014). She has worked in Television both on screen Neighbours: Road Trip (2016) and in production behind the scenes Buying Blind (2018).

Eliza has more than 15 years lived experience with myalgic encephalomyelitis, first contracting the illness following a virus in 2009, and has traveled the world to receive treatment, meet with researchers, and collaborate on patient advocacy campaigns for ME, POTS, and long COVID.

Born in Melbourne, Australia to scientist parents, Professor Ros Gleadow and Professor Andrew Gleadow, Eliza blends her passion for science with a desire to see patient justice and improved policymaking at home and abroad. She now resides in Florence, Italy.

06 Introducing

Sophie Scott OAM

Award winning broadcaster, international speaker and author

Sophie has a long career as an award-winning medical TV journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sophie is a professional speaker and educator with expertise in mental health and wellbeing. She teaches people around the world how to prevent and manage burnout, reduce stress, and communicate with impact, and has been recognised with an Order of Australia Medal for her service to broadcast media, and to community health.

She has an extensive presence on social media, has been an invited speaker at the World Congress on Positive Psychology, has written two books (Live a Longer Life (ABC Books) and RoadTesting Happiness (Harper Collins), and has won major awards for her journalism and medical reporting. Upon leaving the ABC she was invited to give a TEDx talk on surviving and thriving burnout.

She is an Advisory Board Member of the Australian National Mental Health Prize and sits on the advisory board on stigma at Australia’s National Mental Health Commission and the University of Melbourne’s Contemplative Studies Centre.