Mamma Mia! - Bear's West End Debut

Our fluffy campaign mascot the Let's do it for ME! Bear first met young starlet Jessica Daley during her time in BBC talent show 'Over the Rainbow'.  They became firm friends and Jessica now helps him in his quest to raise awareness of ME whenever she can.  Bear was delighted to visit Jessica in London again recently.  Their mission: to raise awareness of ME once again!

Bear didn't know it but he was in for a real treat.. since his last visit Jessica has successfully graduated from Arts Ed and secured her first West End role.  She's now starring in the award winning musical Mamma Mia! as Ali.  It was a first for Bear to experience the extravaganza of a West End musical and with such a hit-filled uplifting show he hasn't stopped singing and toe tapping since.  While Bear is no old pro (as yet) at attending showbiz events or rubbing shoulders with celebs he managed to keep his cool when introduced backstage to leading ladies Steph Parry, Dianne Pilkington and Jane Milligan (left to right) in their fabulous flared neon catsuits.  Bear received a very warm welcome and a Mamma Mia! selfie to add to his awareness raising photo album - thank you ladies!

Bear meets some of the show's main characters fresh from the stage: Tanya (Steph Parry), Donna Sheridan (Dianne Pilkington) and Rosie (Jane Milligan)

Some 250,000 people are thought to have ME or CFS in the UK – 25% are severely affected and 10% are children. Some are so severely affected that they cannot move, speak or swallow. Find out more about ME and our campaign here.


Who could Bear meet next? Do you think you can get our cuddly, handsome mascot LDIfME Bear an introduction to a local celeb to help raise awareness of our fundraising campaign and the vital work of Invest in ME? Our awareness raising bears remain available for adoption to all good homes from our shop but we are now able to offer a limited number direct from Invest in ME at a reduced price while stocks last. These will be added to the IiME site soon and we will update this post, www.investinme.org and ldifme.org


Also see: Bear meets Emmerdale star Claire King and some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's favourite Dorothy finalists here. Bear was lucky enough to meet some of the lovely writers, directors and actors involved in making 'Many Happy Returns' a Dr Who audio play sold in aid of Invest in ME here.

Let's do it for ME!

ldifme.org

Invest in ME (Research)

investinme.org

IiME International Biomedical Research Conference

investinme.eu

IiME/UCL UK Rituximab Trial 

ukrituximabtrial.org

LDIFME Bear Meets - Part 2

LDIFME Bear loves to get out and about and raise awareness of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis! He was spotted back in January boarding a train to London and we were left wondering how he'd cope in the big city. Well it turns out he's a very independent little bear.. in fact we're a little jealous back at LDIFME headquarters that he's been having such fun and meeting.. well we'll get to that in a minute.

Bronte Barbe

Some of you will know Jessica Daley (formerly Robinson) has been chaperoning Bear for us after they met backstage at Middlesbrough's 'Little Theatre' during her role as Snow White (see Part 1). She quickly took him under her wing and on a train back to London and it didn't take long before he was ready for his "close-up" once again.

After hearing about Jessica's time in the BBC1 programme 'Over The Rainbow' Bear was excited to meet some of the other Dorothy's who sang and danced their way into the final ten for the leading role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End production of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Bronte Barbe from Cheshire has qualities similar to Dorothy being a small-town girl determined to make her own way in life. Since her experience on the live shows Bronte has gone on to train at Mountview Academy honing her skills to increase her chances of making it big in showbiz – good luck Bronte!

Jenny Douglas

Edinburgh's Jenny Douglas studied Musical Theatre at Motherwell College in Scotland and was 18 when she became one of the final ten girls for Andrew Lloyd Webber's search for Dorothy. Although she made it through eight live shows before being voted out of the competition Jenny feels it was for the best and as a self-confessed rock-chick that she's much more suited to her current role of Meat in a National touring production of the Queen musical “We Will Rock You”.

Stephanie Fearon had her West End debut in ‘Whistle Down The Wind’ when she was 10 and has appeared in Channel 4 teen drama ‘As If’ and the BBC1 drama ‘Casualty’. Her biggest TV break, however, was the role of ‘Harriet’ ("Harry"), in the out of this world CITV programme ‘My Parents Are Aliens’.

Stephanie Fearon

The daughter of hit-makers, Phil Fearon, of the 1980s band Galaxy, and Dorothy Fearon, a member of 1990s chart-toppers Baby D Londoner Stephanie Fearon is a former Dorothy finalist with showbiz blood in her veins. Stephanie came fourth in the competition and landed a role in a revival of the Tony Award-winning production of Smokey Joe’s Café less than a month after leaving the show. She has also played ‘Dorothy’ in a production of the ‘The Wiz’ at the Milton Keynes Theatre as well as a touring production of 'The Wizard Of Oz'. October was the highlight of 2011 for Stephanie when she played Diana Morales in 'A Chorus Line' directed by Baayork Lee and played at the Tel Aviv Opera House, Israel.

Meeting Dorothy finalists Bronte, Jenny and Stephanie on what was dubbed a 'Dottie Reunion' night-out was a real treat for Bear but more was to come. He also got to meet talented young singer, actress and model Lucie Jones. Lucie is probably best known for being a 2009 X-Factor finalist but went on to star as Cosette in 'Les Miserables' and has also been signed by top London Modelling Agency Select Models and is currently the new face of Wonderbra’s ‘Full Effects’ campaign.

Lucie Jones

Interestingly, Lucie also starred as Gemma in two episodes of Doctor Who spin-off series 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'. Bear is now quite the Dr Who fan after meeting actresses Lisa Bowerman and Ayesha Antoine at Big Finish Productions last year following the recording of unique feature-length audio drama 'Many Happy Returns' a Dr Who spin-off starring Bernice Summerfield. The project was initiated by LDIFME planning group member Jac Rayner who has close connections with the character and first approached Big Finish about making a charity download late last year. Every penny made from the audio will go to Invest in ME. More details on the project can be found in our previous post. *The download is not due to be released until November - we will update you nearer the time!

A big thank you to Bronte, Jenny, Stephanie and Lucie for supporting Let's do it for ME! and of course to Jessica for getting us these great photos, looking after LDIFME bear for us and continuing to raise awareness of ME.

*News Just In: After a brief shortage LDIFME Bears are available for adoption once again via our shop – see them sporting two new t-shirt designs here.

Let's do it for ME!