Let's Do It for ME!: ‘Let’s Get Snapping for ME!’ 2012 Christmas Cards Photo Competition Winners Announced!

The ‘Let’s do it for ME’ team came up with the idea of the ‘Let’s Get Snapping for ME!’ as we were discussing plans for producing our Christmas cards for this year. We wanted to go that extra mile and make them a little bit special and more relevant to ME than just buying in stock images. So we decided that it would be a really good idea to run this competition whereby LDIFME supporters could make a contribution by sending in photos and have winning entries printed on our cards. We realised that this would be a great opportunity for ME sufferers in particular, whose talent often remains behind closed doors, to have the chance to be acknowledged and celebrated. There couldn’t be more powerful and positive ME awareness whilst raising money for vital biomedical research.

The response to this competition has been simply amazing! 180 photos were entered and a staggering 2351 votes cast in our online poll; we couldn’t have asked or wished for more. The great success of the ‘Let’s Get Snapping for ME’ simply wouldn’t have been possible without your support and we would like to say a very big thank to everyone who got involved, including those who sent in and posted up messages of support and thanks. This means a great deal to us and makes all the hard work that the team, most of whom have ME ourselves, has put in behind the scenes worth it. Special thanks go to Julia Cottam for her hard work on planning and coordinating the competition.

The standard of entries was particularly high and went way beyond our expectations. We did say this was an opportunity to shine, and you certainly did just that! This obviously created its own challenges in that the team had the very difficult task of selecting those for the online vote; and again for those casting votes in the second stage online vote. Many online voters remarked, ‘how could they choose between them, when they’re all so good?’ The online vote was however successful in determining the top five photos that attracted the most votes.

Each winner will have their photos printed up on our 2012 Christmas cards and receive free packs featuring their photo. The cards will be sold to help raise funds towards our £100K campaign target (see page tabs and leaflet for details). We aim to have these available to purchase in early November. For those shortlisted entrants who missed out in our online vote, don’t be disappointed. The team has been coming up with lots of ideas. We hope to be able extend the number printed and possibly branch out into other products too. An announcement will be made shortly, so keep an eye out for updates!

Given the success of the competition, we aim to run this again next year. For those that have never entered a photo competition before don’t be put off entering, the majority of those who entered this year’s had never done anything like this before and just look at the results! We hope this inspires you in the coming months to dust off your cameras. Here’s to an even bigger and better Let’s Get Snapping for ME! in 2013. Let’s do it for ME!

This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for, so without further ado, Let’s do it for ME can proudly announce the five winners of our ‘Let’s Snapping for ME! 2012 Photo Competition.

Congratulations and well done!