Ryan Prior



Ryan Prior is an advocate who wrote and co-directed the documentary, Forgotten Plague, based on his experiences as well as others living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The topics of science and politics of ME/CFS were also included. He is the founder of The Blue Ribbon Foundation.

Illness onset leads to advocacy
In 2006 Ryan Prior was a healthy, athletic high school student when he became ill with ME/CFS. After graduating college and becoming a journalist he wrote an article for USA Today: College Viewpoint: The real story of chronic fatigue syndrome and received so much feedback that he realized he needed to do more to report on the disease and produced a documentary: "A Film That Tells The Great Under-Reported Medical Story Of Our Time." His crowdfund raised $120,000 for Forgotten Plague. Prior and his then-girlfriend, Nicole Castillo, co-directed.

Prior also initiated the The Blue Ribbon Fellowship to educate students in the disease ME/CFS. Currently only 5% of medical schools have proper curricular, research and clinical standards of care for the disease.

Awards

 * 2014, ePatient Scholar; Executive Producer, The Blue Ribbon
 * 2014, ProHealth's Advocate of the Year
 * 2017, Eagle Rare Life Leadership Category Award $5K Prize

Nominations

 * 2017, Eagle Rare Rare Life Honor Award and Contest open for international daily voting until January 2017. *Won Leadership category and $5K Award*

Talks and interviews

 * Jan 23, 2014, The Jim Bohannon Show Appearing, Dr. Andreas Kogelnik, Ryan Prior, and Llewellyn King of ME/CFS Alert.
 * 2014, ME/CFS Alert Episode 58 - Ryan Prior and the Blue Ribbon Foundation
 * 2014, ME/CFS Alert Episode 57 - Patient Perspectives - Ryan Prior and the Blue Ribbon Fellowship
 * 2016, In Sickness + In Health - Podcast 36 - ME/CFS & POTS w Ryan Prior (Begins at 11:45)
 * 2016, Just Talking Podcast

Media exposure

 * Jun 17, 2013, A Young Man, a Big Disease and a Big Idea via White House Chronicle
 * Aug 8, 2018, Millions suffer from an invisible disease: My ME/CFS story via CNN.com

Online presence

 * Twitter


 * Facebook


 * Website