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1) 🇳🇱 In the Netherlands, ME/CFS patient and advocate Anil Van Der Zee was appointed Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. It's an recognition of his outstanding contribution to society, a very high honour.

2) Anil is severely affected by ME/CFS has been living in isolation for more than 10 years. He can only see someone a few times a year, for a couple of minutes. The Dutch national broadcast NOS and the newspaper de Volkskrant wrote a profile on him.

4) He also makes movies from his bed, for example 'Doctors as Patients' which has been viewed more than 60.000 times on YouTube. In this film, doctors with post-infectious syndromes explain how becoming ill changed their lives and their view on medicine.

5) Its truly special that a leader from our field (ME/CFS and Long Covid) gets knighted. It feels as recognition, not only of the special person Anil is, but also of the entire community, of the patients and carers fighting every day.

6) That said, I wanted to add some personal words of appreciation for Anil and what makes him special. One thing is that he is often critical but always kind and uniting. Scientist Jos Bosch described him as "someone who offers criticism but never polarizes.”