Wendy Boutilier

Wendy Boutilier, a Canadian Artist & Eco Anthropologist developed ME in 2008, following strep throat, sepsis and cervical necrotising fasciitis caused by a very severe infection of streptococcus pyogenes necrotizing fasciitis sometimes called “flesh-eating bacteria." Latent virus testing showed two types of DENV (Dengue fever) flaviviridae serotypes, Rubeola virus, varicella-zoster virus. She continues to suffer from moderate to severe ME leaving her disabled and 75% housebound. She holds a Batchelor of Arts degree in Fine Art, Art History, Anthropology. From 1990, she worked in the Caribbean, Central and South America liaising between Gov’t & Corporate Investors in Tourism until she became ill in Barbados in 2008 and returned to Canada in 2011.  After 4 yrs of online studies, she successfully defended & was awarded her Masters highlighting an Anthropology Thesis about the hidden ME Community and the lives that have been stalled for decades due to mismanagement of government and irresponsible medical neglect.

Advocacy work
Boutilier guest blogged for Just ME on 12 May 2014 where she discussed Sophia Mirza's death, the image problem cause by the trivializing disease name and outdated psychological explanations of its etiology. She highlighted Dr. Kenny de Meirleir's work and outlined biomedical abnormalities caused by the illness. She admins on several ME Support facebook pages and is an active ME advocate.

Boutilier created art projects called Tears for ME, Blue Roses, Elephant in the Room to honour those who have lost their lives to ME. She grants permission for all awareness graphics to be used to promote the suffering of ME, specifically on social media for May 12th Awareness Events, sponsored by the May12th.org. Advocates for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, raising awareness for the 25% ME Group charity and Severe ME Awareness Day.

In 2016, she wrote to the Canadian Federal Minister of Health after the Canadian Institute of Health Research denied a grant for ME based on a psychological approach to the illness and stating that their denial cited erroneous and outdated research. In her letter she urged the ministry to adopt the International Consensus Criteria 2011 definition and diagnostic code for ME.

She has also been published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal with respect to treatment of ME. She urged the medical profession to remove recommendations for GET and CBT treatments since the PACE trial research study was found to lack good science. Boutilier has also been published on the Stonebird website, writing about the UK on the cost of ME.

Global Advocates for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
Together with Guido den Broeder and John Gabor, Boutilier is a founder of Global Advocates for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (GAME), an international group of advocates dedicated to education and information about myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Learn more

 * The Faces of Sepsis - Wendy Boutilier
 * Body Count: the tragic stories of severe ME
 * http://stonebird.co.uk/Price%20of%20Myalgic%20Encephalomyelitis.pdf

Online presence

 * Artzstudio/Wendy Boutilier Facebook