Invest in ME is Viking's Cause of the Month!

Hurray! You did it - many thanks to all who voted!

From the easyfundraising blog:

“Well done to Invest In ME who are this month’s Cause of the Month and win a £200 donation from Viking”.

Thanks also to those who have signed up with easyfundraising to raise funds for free when you shop through their website - a free service where you can shop with your favourite online stores at no extra cost to you to raise funds for Invest in ME.

You still shop directly with each retailer as you would normally, but simply by using the links from the easyfundraising site first, each purchase you make will generate a cash back donation to the Invest in ME, instantly raising money for them.

Invest in ME has 256 supporters so far on easyfundraising, who have raised just over £640 for the charity so far for free. It's easy to sign up and start using straight away, so if you would like to join them click here.

People of all ages suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis desperately need this centre for translational biomedical research and every little adds up so please ..

Let's do it for ME!
Thank you so much for your support!





*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Vote Now for IiME to Win £200!

Good news - Invest in ME was short-listed for Cause of the Month on easyfundraising - thank you to all who nominated them in round one - please vote now for them to win.

Voting closes at Midday (12 noon) on September 30th and the cause with the most votes fairly cast will win a £200 donation from Viking. No prizes for 2^nd place.

Please make sure you abide by their terms and conditions.

You do not need to have nominated Invest in ME in order to cast your vote now so don't worry if you missed out on the nomination stage.

You will need to sign up to easyfundraising if not done already – it's easy and it means you can raise funds for Invest in ME for free whenever you search and shop via the easyfundraising site.

Ready to cast your vote? Click here.

Let's do it for ME!

Thank you for your support!

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Show Us Your Best Side - Photo Competition!

*See our later post for a competition update and the new improved Let's do it for ME! signs - Photo Competition Update.

The level of support and enthusiasm for Invest in ME's proposal for a UK centre for biomedical research and treatment for myalgic encephalomyelitis, since Let's do it for ME! launched a few weeks ago, has been truly inspiring, and has given hope to many of the ME sufferers, their families and friends who have heard about it so far. This can be seen by the amazing comments left in our Guestbook, the donations made so far, and the many on-going fund-raising events set up to benefit it.

We wish to take this opportunity to thank everyone supporting this campaign, which aims to raise the £100,000 necessary to open the centre.

Our other aim is to generate publicity that will raise awareness of ME, the need for biomedical research, and the proposed UK centre - so we'd like to make sure that this support is as visible as possible. We feel the best way to do this is to enlist your help by asking as many supporters as are able to send us your photos.

There are no specific requirements - you do not need to suffer from ME yourself or have a loved one that suffers - the only requirement is that you support our campaign and Invest in ME's proposal for a UK centre for biomedical ME research and treatment.

Your help in making an invisible illness more visible will be greatly appreciated.

So, are you ready for your close up? Then send us a photo showing that you support our campaign!

To make it easy to show your support, we have made the following signs for you to print-out.

But we encourage those who wish to be creative to make your own signs or find other ways to show you support the campaign - it might be a photo of you at your fund-raising event for example.

There is no deadline for photos to be sent to us, as we'd like supporters to keep sending them in as the campaign progresses, but to help get our album off to a flying start the most inspired photo sent in by midnight 31st October will also receive a special prize. The winner will be announced early in November and will have a choice of Let's do it for ME! products, including a teddy bear, t-shirt or mug!

Send your photos in to us at fundraising4me@gmail.com, along with your name, age (if under 16) and any other details you are happy for us to share publicly.

We feel it is important to allow young people to show they are behind this campaign but if you are under 16 please seek permission from a parent or guardian before you send in your photo(s) and provide us with their contact details (Name, Address, Telephone No. and Email Address) as we cannot use your photo(s) without this permission.

Your photos will be added to the Let's do it for ME! web-album and displayed on our website. By sending us your photos you will be helping to raise awareness of a debilitating neurological disease that afflicts 250,000 people in the UK, 25,000 of which are children, and to give hope to sufferers, their families and friends.

So are you feeling inspired and ready to Show Us Your Best Side? Let's do it for ME!


Thank you so much for your support, we look forward to receiving your photos!
Team LDIFME

*For more details on the proposal for the centre see A UK Centre or download The Invest in ME Steering Group Proposal for a ME Research Facility. We will also have more details on the proposal and its progress soon. The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME and towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Thinking of Lynn Gilderdale on her birthday

Today, we would like to pay tribute to the late Lynn Gilderdale in honour of her birthday.

Lynn was born on 20^th September 1977 in Burwash, East Sussex, later moving to the village of Stonegate with her loving family – her parents Kay and Richard and her older brother Stephen – and growing up to become, in her mother's words:

“everything you could wish for in a daughter: beautiful, bright, loving, accomplished, eager for life and all the delights it had in store for her”.

Kay's description of Lynn depicts a fun-loving little girl, full of smiles, laughter and chatter. With a lively imagination, she loved dressing up with her friends and cousins, making up stories and telling silly jokes, improvising make-believe radio interviews and plays in which Lucky, the family cat, often enjoyed a role, recording their play-acting on a cassette recorder. Though full of fun, Lynn also took her responsibilities seriously and was a prefect at primary school. She loved English, history and religious studies.

Lynn enjoyed the outdoors and being very active. Physically confident, quick thinking and fearless, she was a strong swimmer, enjoyed sailing and was captain of her school netball team. Lynn also loved modern dance, won prizes for ballet and took part in many school productions, including the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, in which she played the White Rabbit. She also played the piano and clarinet and sometimes thought she might become a music teacher, but one thing Lynn knew for sure was that she wanted children of her own one day. She proclaimed:

“Family is the most important and precious thing in life”.

At age 14, Lynn became ill immediately following the BCG vaccination at school. While still unwell, she was struck by a bad bout of flu, swiftly followed by bronchitis, tonsillitis, glandular fever, and a chest infection. Lynn's immune system seemed unable to cope with this onslaught of successive infections and she was on strong antibiotics for months. She was later diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis and sadly never recovered. After 17 years of very severe ME and with no further hope of recovery by that stage, Lynn passed away on 4^th December 2008 at the time of her own choosing, with her devoted mother Kay, as ever, by her side to comfort and support her.

Our loving thoughts are with Lynn and her family of this day 34 years ago, when Kay brought her beautiful, brave and inspirational daughter into the world to touch the lives and hearts of all who knew her and came to know of her. May this day be filled with memories of the happy times.

The full story of Lynn's life may be read in her mother's memoir:

“One Last Goodbye” by Kay Gilderdale

Published by Ebury Press

ISBN 978-0091939144

Click here to read some Amazon customer reviews.

Please ask your local library and local book shops to stock copies.

Currently available to buy in several stores and also on-line in paperbook or ebook format.

If you buy through the easyfundraising site, e.g. from Amazon or The Random House Group and choose Invest in ME as your cause, the charity will receive up to 2.5% of the price as a donation, with no extra cost to you.

Thank you for your support.

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Peter Amos BUPA Great North Run

Peter Amos has a relative with myalgic encephalomyelitis.  He said:
 
“I'm running in the Bupa Great North Run Sunday 18th of September and want to raise as much money as possible for Let's do it for ME in support of Invest in M.E. and their plans to open a Centre for Biomedical Research into M.E. in East Anglia, the first of it's kind in Europe.

Let's do it for ME is a patient driven initiative in support of Invest in ME and gives great hope to the estimated 250,000 sufferers in the U.K. 25% of whom are severely affected / bed bound. Also for the very many children and teenagers who suffer from this debilitating illness.

Thank you for your generous support,

Peter.”


UPDATE

Peter finished the run in a time of 2.03.49 and has raised £756 so far!

He has asked us to pass on a big thank you to all those who have sponsored him and for all the support and encouraging posts and comments.

Peter's fundraising page on Everyclick remains open until 31st October so there is still plenty of time to donate in support of his achievement.

Thank you so much to Peter and sponsors for doing this for ME!


To donate via Peter's page on Everyclick, click here.

P.S. When you make a donation, don't forget to check the Gift Aid box if you're a UK taxpayer as then your charity can claim an extra 25% from the government!



*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Kathryn's Sponsored Silence

“My name is Kathryn Lloyd and I have suffered from severe M.E for 26 years from the age of 11.

I've spent many of those years bed-bound in a dark room, unable to tolerate light or any noise at all.

At my illest, I couldn't use my limbs, had to be fed liquid food as I couldn't chew, and I had to lie in one position for 6 years. I had to lie flat, as my blood pressure would drop so dramatically if I even raised my head that I used to start to get the symptoms of frontal lobe brain damage.

I also couldn't speak for 40 months and this is why I've decided to do a sponsored silence as it symbolises just how severe this illness can be.

I want medical evidence that will finally silence the barbarism I've had to put up with by doctors in the press suggesting my illness wasn't physiological. Not many people know as much as I do just how physiological it is. I also want treatments so I can be healthy again, as I was when I was a child so I can make up for the 26 years of my life I've lost.

This centre offers me both of these things and I will do everything to can to support it - please do everything you can too.

Love and hope,

Kathryn” 

Kathryn plans to hold her event mid-October but she won't hold her tongue for peanuts so to help her family and friends to reach her target you can sponsor Kathryn here.

Thank you so much for your support!

• UPDATE:  A huge thank you to all who have sponsored Kathryn's silence so far, including Houghton Round Table for their generous donation of £350!

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

It's easy to nominate Invest in ME as Cause of the Month for September on the Easyfundraising site to win a £200 donation from Viking.

Here’s how it works:

1. Post a comment on the site to tell them about Invest in ME and why you think they should be Cause of the Month.

2. On Monday September 19th, they will announce a shortlist of 10 causes and ask you all to vote for the one you would like to win.

3. The voting closes at Midday (12 noon) on September 30th and the cause with the most votes fairly cast will win a £200 donation from Viking.

Please make sure you abide by their terms and conditions.

We will post news here if Invest in ME makes it to the shortlist on 19th and then needs your vote.

Click here to nominate Invest in ME for Viking's Cause of the Month on Easyfundraising.

Thank you for your support!

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Jan's Birthday Wish

Jan Laverick is a co-founder of Let's do it for ME! (round of applause and cries of for she's a jolly fellow!)

Jan contracted myalgic encephalomyelitis aged 17 and has now reached the grand old age of 29!

All Jan wants for her birthday is donations to help establish a centre for biomedical ME research and treatment in the UK.

All donations go directly to the charity Invest in ME via Jan's fundraising page on Everyclick and will count towards the total raised by Let's do it for ME! for the centre.

She says:

“All who know me know how ill this disease has made me, and some of you are also aware of the abuse I've received from doctors and of the general ignorance and neglect surrounding ME.
Seems I am turning 29 I have set the target amount as £290.

Big thanks!”

The closing date for Jan's birthday wish fund-raising page is tomorrow 5^th September so please show Jan your appreciation for all she does for fellow ME sufferers by helping to make Jan's birthday wish come true.

Click here to help make Jan show her happy face - it's worth a click just to see the photos!

P.S. When you make a donation, don't forget to check the Gift Aid box if you're a UK taxpayer as then your charity can claim an extra 25% from the government!

Matched Donation Total Reached!

What a fantastic response to our announcement on Sunday of the matched donation offer!
The total of £1300 as been reached already - doubled by our generous matched donation sponsors and with just under £600 courtesy of Gift Aid for UK tax-payers, you have raised £3,200 in just 4 days!

Together, we have raised just under £6,000 in the 6 weeks since this campaign was launched.

A huge thank you to all who have donated - and are continuing to donate in a variety of ways - and special thanks to the wonderful sponsors for donating the matched amount.
This is what some sponsors said on the Everyclick page over the past few days ...

“A great cause trying to achieve great things.”
“Not a huge amount . . . but hoping every little helps :o)”

“Gotta make the most of the match funding period, even if broke”

“Supporting REAL research into ME!”

“Fantastic initiative and so needed”

“Thank you so much Invest in ME & others”

“I just wish I had more to give! Thanks, IinME xx”

“The proposed research centre is a beacon of hope”

“Just what's needed!”

“I support this tremendous venture 100%”

“Fantastic cause worth every penny!”

“Good luck with this project!”

“Hope you reach the target.”

The matching period may have ended but for more ways to donate see How To Help

Thank you so much for your support!

Let's do it for ME!

*The Let's do it for ME! awareness and fund-raising campaign is run by ME sufferers in close cooperation with the charity Invest in ME. Your donations go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK Centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.