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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.

3) Despite the severity of his illness, Anil helps to raise awareness of ME/CFS and related diseases by sharing news, advising researchers and helping fellow sufferers. As a former professional ballet dancer, he uses a lot of art and photography in his advocacy.

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.”

7) Another unique quality is the art Anil uses. You can see it in his movies, his photographs, his website. It always has elegance and style, captures the essence. This is makes his ME/CFS advocacy much more powerful because it touches people on an emotional level.

9) I think these qualities have made Anil a unifying figure in the ME/CFS, one that transcend countries and several communities. He has been an inspiration for our own advocacy work and we're really glad his effort got this recognition and award 💙.