On the 23rd November Ellie MacDonald (Chair), Sonja Crisp (Vice Chair) and Beverley Finn (Secretary) travelled to Brussels to attend the first AGM of the European Alliance of Restless Legs Syndrome (EARLS). We spent time meeting our counterparts from other participating European countries. It was extremely encouraging to note how far the EARLS Group has moved on since our registration at the European Parliament in November 2009.

Joke Jaarsma, the President of the EARLS group spoke at length on the data received from the questionnaires sent out to members of participating countries, which had been collated and some very initial observations made based on that data.

Ellie, Sonja and myself would like to thank those of our members who completed and returned their questionnaires. 

Joke mentioned the case of a member from France who had seen dozens of doctors prior to being diagnosed with RLS. Although that was considered to be an extreme example of the problem confronting us, it is not altogether unique, as the mail sent by some of our members would confirm. 

We also learned that in the Netherlands, RLS sufferers have now won the right to be registered disabled, as high court actions have been fought and successfully won in several cases.

There are new countries from the old 'Eastern Bloc' who are desirous of joining the European Group. Romania is one such country and Joke is to visit them and guide them through the process to form their own national RLS Group.

As a relatively young RLS/UK ESA, compared to some of our European counterparts, other European members greeted our own update report with great enthusiasm, commenting on how much we had achieved in just one short year, since they last met with us in Brussels.

Ellie has agreed to become a committee member of the European Group and as such will be in a position to keep us up to date regarding any information emanating from EARLS.

Beverley Finn (Secretary)