Rosa's Wristbands

Fancy Design

These lovely blue ME Awareness wristbands are made of blue baby wool tied with ribbon and were crocheted by Rosalind Amor and donated by her to Invest in ME charity to raise funds for the UK Centre. Rosa says:

"I am now a year older than the age Alison Hunter was when she died of ME in 1996. I am 20 years old. Alison Hunter had suffered, horrendously, from ME for 10 years prior to her death. Her symptoms included seizures, paralysis, gastrointestinal paresis, heart damage, massive ulceration to her throat, horrendous neurological problems and overwhelming infection.

I have had ME for 12 years though fortunately not as badly as Alison Hunter. My ME seemed to be triggered by a virus of the gut when I was 8 years old. However, the exact cause of my many unpleasant symptoms (pain, nausea, partial paralysis, *brain fog*, extreme tiredness and lack of stamina, hypersensitivity) was unknown to me and my family until last year when some Mitochondria tests gave a glimpse of at least part of what is going wrong. You can find out more about me via my blog.

Simple Design

I have been crocheting wristbands to raise awareness and funds for the new centre proposed by Invest in ME Charity. There are 2 different designs and they are £2:50 each. I think this new centre is crucial if the ME community wants to move forward, towards better understanding and care for people like Alison Hunter and myself.  You can find out more about Alison Hunter here.

So please buy my wristbands to raise awareness of the suffering endured by teenagers with ME and funds to found a centre to provide a better future for them.

Please order by emailing info@investinme.org

Thank you for buying them."

Many thanks and very best wishes to Rosa.

You can visit Rosa's Facebook group - Let's do it for ME wristbands brigade - to post any photos of you wearing your wristband.  UPDATE: You can now also find Rosa's wristbands on the Make ME Crafts Facebook page.

The Alison Hunter Memorial Foundation kindly sponsored two of the annual Invest in ME International Conferences on biomedical research by donating toward production costs of the DVD of the 4th conference in 2009 and contributing toward the cost of the 5th Invest in ME conference in 2010.

UPDATE: The 7th IIMEC was held in London on 1st June 2012 and was titled: Building a Future for Research into ME Clinical and Research Updates in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.  A new Clinical Autoimmunity Working Group, initiated by collaboration between Invest in ME, The Alison Hunter Memorial Foundation, and researchers from the University of East Anglia and Bond University, met for the first time at the end of May.  We, as ME patients, are very appreciative of the dedication and hard work of all involved in this exciting new development and hopeful of the progress that these collaborative working arrangements will achieve.

On 9th July Rosa said,

"We raised £104.72 during ME awareness month with collecting tins. In spite of being bedridden with repeated vomiting:) 

Haven't made any wristbands though, hands too weak.

Have to buy Jon Watson's (Make ME Crafts) for time being.

I so wish we could get this centre running, I need it!"

So come on everyone - let's do it for Rosa and others like her - Let's do it for ME!

(for options to simply donate to the research now)