fibromialgia.info | About Us

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About Us

We are the Fibromyalgia Awareness Association, based in Vitoria-Gasteiz in northern Spain. We differ from other patient organisations in many ways. We are very, very small. The smallest of all, in fact. So small that the members of our scientific committee outnumber us, and the people we collaborate with outnumber us and our scientific committee put together. All three of these groups, and our honorary patron, Basque television presenter Anne Igartiburu, receive the same financial compensation for our work: nada.

Our mission remains the same as when we were founded: to focus solely on raising awareness of this illness. Our modus operandi is almost always the same: we start with an idea, assess it with relevant experts, and build and develop the idea until it is ready to be given away freely to anyone browsing our websites.

Our achievements so far include:

Publishing “A Beginner’s Guide to Fibromyalgia“, ISBN 978-84-608-7833-9 (2016), funded and endorsed by the Spanish Society for Rheumatology (SER) and endorsed by the General Psychology Council of Spain (COP) and the Spanish Society for Internal Medicine (SEMI).
Publishing “Guía de debut en Fibromialgia“, ISBN 978-84-606-5840-5 (2015), recognised with an award and endorsed by the Spanish Society for Rheumatology (SER) and endorsed by the General Psychology Council of Spain (COP). and the Spanish Society for Internal Medicine (SEMI).
Launching the website fibro.pro, aimed at a professional audience. This medical website is accredited by and recommended for rheumatology patients by the Spanish Society for Rheumatology (SER).
Launching the website fibromialgia.info, aimed at a non-professional audience.
Publishing “Guía didáctica de los cuentos de Mingabe“, which was recommended by the General Psychology Council of Spain (COP) in 2010.
Publishing “Los cuentos de Mingabe“, ISBN 978-84-614-1423-9 (2010).
Publishing the “Guía de ejercicios para personas con fibromialgia“, ISBN 978-84-692-2868-5 (2009), which was endorsed by the Portuguese Institute for Rheumatology (IPR), and recommended for rheumatology patients by the Spanish Society for Rheumatology (SER).
Being finalists for Best Patient Service Initiatives in 2008 and 2009.
Organising the Inaugural National Congress for Psychology in Fibromyalgia, Vitoria-Gasteiz, January 2008.
Organising the Conference for Professionals working in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Bilbao, October 2007.
Creating the “CELESTE International Prize for Psychology in Fibromyalgia” in 2007.
Publishing “Fibromialgia, punto de encuentro“, ISBN 84-611-0002-6 (2006).

Our logo, the “Eguzkilore”

Travelling through remote parts of the Basque Country, even today you may still see old Eguzkilores pinned to the doors of houses and country lodges.

Eguzkilore is Basque for “flower of the sun”, the silver thistle or Carlina Acaulis, which grows in the mountains, meadows and fields of the Basque Country, Cantabria and the Pyrenees, as well as in various parts of central Europe, and in countries as far as Iceland, Sweden and Norway.

This plant has been attributed with many medical and healing properties but is best known in Spain for its deeply-rooted links to Basque folklore.

The legend goes that Amalur (Mother Earth) created the Eguzkilore to protect houses from evil spirits: from witches, genies, the witch-like Basque supernatural beings lamiak and sorginak, illness, thunder and lightning, and other forms of evil.

A few years ago, the practice of pinning Eguzkilores to front doors came back in, leading to the flower’s near extinction. Because of this, picking them from the wild is now strictly prohibited.

Here at the Fibromyalgia Awareness Association, we wanted to call upon the “magic powers” of the silver thistle, but were also mindful of conservation. We decided to adopt the Eguzkilore in its symbolic form as the logo of our organisation, so that it can also protect our homes, and those who live in them, from the suffering of fibromyalgia.