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Big Give 2023

Dear Lynne,

Thank you. Simply and sincerely, thank you. Your Pledge helped us achieve our best fundraising campaign result ever. Not only did we exhaust the Pledge pot but also the Charity Champion monies. We raised, for research, £29,375, which is more than we thought possible. Which, given the current economic climate, is amazing.

I know that we would not have been favoured for donations was it not for matched funding which you were kind enough to pledge. You were pivotal to the success of the Big Give 2023.

Regards

Stewart Walker

Operations Director

ME Research UK, The Gateway, North Methven St, Perth PH1 5PP, UK, 01738 451234 

Central e-mail : contact@meresearch.org.uk 

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Dear Lynne,

I have just been informed that we have secured Charity Champion funding from The Reed Foundation and wish you to be one of the first to know.

They have clearly been impressed by the support shown during the Pledge phase and they have added an additional layer of matched funding – £5000.

 

Basically, first call will be made on the Pledge Pot into which represents all the Pledges – including your own.  If we receive donations above £8675 then The Reed Foundation’s Pledge will continue to match fund up to a maximum of £5000.

Long and short of it is that your Pledge has already made a difference, but we have a huge amount of fundraising to do during The Big Give to exhaust both pots!

Regards, Stewart Walker, Operations Director

THANK YOU for supporting the ME Association’s recent Count ME In campaign. Your participation helped to make it the biggest and most successful national campaign that we have ever done. It was an ambitious project – we have learned a great deal – and we will apply this knowledge to future campaigns…

It was the first time that we had engaged a marketing agency and market research team to position external advertising, ensuring that key messages and information were shared as widely as possible. As a result, we were able to reach more people than ever before!

The Big Give 2023

Prof. Taylor’s project was made possible thanks to the Irish ME/CFS Association, and to the generosity of our supporters during last year’s Big Give Challenge. And there are now just a few days to go before the Pledge phase of this year’s challenge ends on 8 September. Pledges encourage others to give, knowing their donation may be doubled during November’s Christmas Challenge, so please pledge today if you can.

Christmas cards

Our new collection of Christmas cards is now available to buy via email, phone, post or our online shop. There are nine designs available this year (with extras in the online shop), and with every purchase you will be helping to support our work. We are so grateful to everyone who supports us in this way every year. Order your cards here.

Dear Lynne,

Many thanks for supporting us one more with a Pledge for the Big Give’s 2023 Christmas Challenge.

I thought that you would like to know that last year’s Big Give funds, together with a donation from the Irish ME/CFS Association, have enabled us to fund a new research project which was announced this morning.

We have awarded a grant to Prof. Janet Taylor and colleagues at Edith Cowan University for a new project investigating spinal nerve function in ME/CFS. Prof. Taylor and her team plan to record the electrical activity of nerves during muscle contractions, comparing people with ME/CFS and control subjects. They will also look at the action of serotonin, a chemical that carries messages between nerves. It being hoped that findings may help better understand the muscle problems experienced by people with ME/CFS, and lead to more effective treatments.

This project has been able to proceed due to Big Give Christmas Challenge funds and I thought that you would like to see that your Pledge has helped make a direct difference in research into ME/CFS.

Regards

Stewart Walker

Operations Director

ME Research UK, The Gateway, North Methven St, Perth PH1 5PP, UK, 01738 451234 

Central e-mail : contact@meresearch.org.uk 

Press Release: The ME Association Is NOT Asking For Money This Christmas!            November 15, 2022

This Christmas national charity the ME Association will be bucking the trend by NOT asking its members for money. Instead, it will give them the chance to say ‘thank you’ to the people who support them – their unpaid carers.     

Members will be asked to nominate that special person in their lives and nominees will be entered into a draw to receive a hamper of seasonal treats. 

‘ME Research UK wishes to thank all members of the VEGEPA Club whose contributions helped us obtain Charity Champion funding and match funding which raised over £7700 in donations during The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2021.

Your pledge helped secure much needed  additional funds which will be invested in M.E. research globally.”

Ask anybody with ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) what they want for Christmas and they will say that they desperately want to feel better.

Well here’s your chance to help – to give Christmas presents that could be real #lifechangers.

ME Association believes that new research could be the best chance yet of finding a test, and hopefully of developing a treatment that will make a real difference to their lives.

Recent research in America shows that metabolomics research (examining the chemical details of cells) could help us to develop a simple test, and better still, a treatment for this devastating illness.

In an exciting new UK collaboration of ME experts (Dr Karl Morten, Prof James Mccullagh & Prof Julia Newton), we hope to develop that research, in the first significant use of samples from the newly launched UK ME/CFS Biobank to verify the initial findings, and help us to better understand the molecular and biochemical basis of the disease.

Thanks so much, Lynne.

You and your club numbers are just fab.

Your donation means that we have achieved over 25% of target of our £50,000 Christmas Appeal in just 12 days.

Thank you to Lynne and Vegepa Club for your marvellous donation to The ME Association’s Christmas Appeal. Thanks to your support, you’ve helped us to get over a quarter of the way towards our target.

Helen Fundraising Manager at The ME Association

You are amazing Lynne! What fruit from an idea and the persistence to carry it through and keep working no matter what. I am in awe!  Linda (Member)

Every bit helps so don’t be shy if you can only afford a very little donation! Simply add it to your total when you order.

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£2,600.35 is the amount we have donated so far just to the ME Biobank Research Fund – all down to you wonderful Members!

The Big Idea   To secure the future of the UK ME/CFS Biobank, an innovative resource which will allow collaborators worldwide to conduct cost-effective research into a poorly understood disease that causes great suffering.  

The Biobank is the only one of its kind in the UK, and the first in Europe.

Need   Robust biomedical research on ME/CFS is urgently needed. The mechanisms of the disease remain elusive; there is no uniform diagnosis – with current treatments restricted to symptom management.

Launched and sustained for the first three years by three ME charities and a private donor, the Biobank has never had state funding. This research facility is run by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine but there are no funds in place beyond 2016 to secure its future or widen its scope.

Solution   Research using Biobank samples has the potential to improve lives around the world as researchers strive to understand, diagnose, treat and one day cure the disease.

The Biobank is cost-effective as researchers can conduct their studies without recruiting additional participants themselves. Rather, they can use biological samples and data already collected and stored according to rigorous scientific protocols.

Thank you all for making our crucial donations possible. Let’s look forward to the day when they have a bona fide treatment and maybe even a cure for our ME! Donating to Biomedical Research is, for sure, the only way that’s ever going to happen.

Originally the manufacturer matched The Club’s donations but they recently decided to concentrate on another cause, Volunteer Reading Help, instead.

With the economic situation worldwide and the increasing difficulties of being on State Benefits, sadly we are donating at a slower rate nowadays but still with the same fervent desire to help achieve an iron-clad diagnosis, a treatment and, one day, a cure for ME.