An Item From ‘Woman’s Hour’ In 1980 - Sort Of…
Woman’s Hour, the long-running BBC Radio Four programme, has a little bit of history regarding Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. In November 1976 an edition was broadcast which eventually led to the formation of what became the M.E. Association, the UK’s second largest M.E. charity. In May 1980 a follow-up (of sorts) was broadcast, presented by the woman who presented that November 1976 edition, Sue MacGregor. At approximately 2.25pm on the 8th May 1980 the programme featured an item called (according to the official documention) “All The Tests Are Negative……”. The reporter was Maureen Galvin and the item ran for just short of ten minutes. It appears (again according to the official documentation) that the piece was recorded in Christmas week 1979. Below is a transcript from the item with one slight omission - we do not have the text from the interview recordings; we only have the script for the links between the interviews, hence the frequent appearance of ‘Taped insert - missing’. BBC archi
