January 22nd 2017: the first member of Recovery Norway is recruited by founder Henrik Vogt (Thomas Overvik, who had been very ill with an ME/CFS diagnosis). Henrik, who is also a medial doctor with a PhD in medical philosophy and public health, is a recovered tinnitus patient. He had been thinking and planning the network since 2014, having and initiated it in 2017 when his PhD was completed. He began by contacting people who had come forward in the media, and thus recruited the first five members. These continued to recruit other members and it snowballed from there.
September 17th 2017: Recovery Norway is publicly launched as a novel kind of network through an op-ed in Norway´s biggest and most well regarded newspaper Aftenposten entitled “Lytt til dem som er blitt friske” (“Listen to those who got well”) and an associated news article. At this point we had about 70 members, of which 46 signed the op-ed. The piece spurred a large debate, where we also published two further contributions: “Håpet for ME-pasienter er her allerede” (“The hope for ME patients is already here”, Aftenposten, 09.10.17) and “Dugnaden for ME-syke er i gang” (“The dugnad for ME patients has started”, Aftenposten, 01.10.17). Dugnad is a Norwegian word that means “jointly performed, unpaid and voluntary work to achieve a common good”.
September 17th 2017: Recovery official Norwegian Facebook page is set up, and becomes – up until the launch of this website – our most important platform for sharing our stories. The Facebook page had more than 2100 followers by March 2019.
December 13th 2017: Our first significant lecture. Several of Recovery Norway’s members hold a lecture series for professionals in the National Advisory Unit for CFS/ME in Oslo, Norway.
January 15th 2018: Recovery Norway is established as a formal organisation with statutes at a foundational meeting in Oslo. None of the board members have commercial ties.
September 4th 2018: Recovery Norway meets with political representatives through State Secretary Anne Grethe Erlandsen (Norwegian Conservative Party) in the Ministry of Health and Care Services. Five members present their stories and bring up central themes such as better help for patients and more research.
November 29th 2018: Recovery Norway meets management representatives of the Norwegian Directorate of Health. Three members present their stories.
March 2nd 2019: Recovery Norway launches the Norwegian language webside www.recoverynorge.org after crowd-funding through the fall of 2018. The website is set up in close cooperation with two students at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
March 19, 2019: Recovery is expanded as an international network with an English website (the one you are at now) and an English Facebook page. We start to publish English translations of our Norwegian members’ stories and the first from international recoverers.
March 23, 2019. Recovery launches its new website in English, in order to reach sufferers globally.
