Weight loss challenge

Yesterday, Tanya and Dave started their weight loss challenge. Here, Tanya explains why…..

‘Our daughter Tara fell ill with M.E. in November 2010, when she was just 10 years old.  Since then she has been unable to attend mainstream or medical school.  This led us to make the difficult decision to de-register her and we will begin home-schooling ourselves when she is a little stronger and able to concentrate enough to take short lessons. 

As a family our lives have dramatically changed since this illness, Tara has two older sisters who find it very difficult to see her in pain and unable to join in with them.  They try not to go on about their social lives in front of her because they feel guilty being able to do all the things Tara should be able to do too.  However, Tara never complains and always sees the bright side of any situation, no matter how hurt she feels inside.  She suffers from chronic pain, headaches, dizziness (blacking out on occasions), regular sore throats and swollen glands, nausea, noise sensitivity and can’t manage large social gatherings due to the sensory overload and exhaustion it causes.   These are just a few of her symptoms – there are many more! She needs to take various medications to help her control her symptoms and misses life as it used to be. 

Tara used to be such an active child.  Always on the go, singing all the time and dancing her way around the house.  She attended tap and modern dance lessons, musical theatre and also dance groups at school.  Nowadays we use a wheelchair for when we go out as a family, as Tara can’t walk too far due to exhaustion and the pain it causes in her limbs and back.  She struggles to sing and if she does, it’s at a whisper as the strain of it hurts her throat.  Although at the moment her activities and social life are limited and have to be managed very carefully, she is able to maintain friendships.  Sadly the number of her friends has dwindled as it is difficult for her to participate with them as a “normal” child would, she can’t go roller skating, swimming or mess about in town with them.  BUT the friends she does have are extremely supportive and loyal and understand that she is limited in her activities and pop in after school for 10 minutes to say hi – or visit for a couple of hours at the weekend to dress up or watch films together.

We have no idea what the future holds for Tara but we are positive and pro-active in her care, always looking out for new treatments and medications which may help her.  We are currently following a regime with both the Children’s Hospital and an Osteopath/ME Specialist.  At the Hospital we utilise the skills of the Consultant, Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Clinical Psychologist and Pain Clinic.  We attend Hydrotherapy for half an hour once a week with the Physiotherapist and Occupational Therapy Group meeting for an hour once a week.  We have regular review sessions with the Pain Clinic, Clinical Psychologist and Consultant too.  The Osteopath/M.E. Specialist has just started treating Tara using the Perrin Technique and is herself an M.E. sufferer.

As a family we’ve had to make a number of adjustments and it hasn’t been an easy ride so far. During this time Dave and I have both gained some padding and now we feel in the right frame of mind to address this BUT wanted to do something to help Tara and other sufferers at the same time.

Invest in M.E. is a fabulous charity with a great vision for M.E. patients.  We want to help raise funds for them to achieve this goal and help support not only Tara, but all the children and adults whose lives have been so drastically altered by this devastating illness.

I have a whopping 42lbs to lose and Dave has 35lbs to go – so in total we aim to lose a combined weight of 77lbs by August!  We are starting our diet today – Saturday 28 January we hope to lose pounds whilst raising pounds for Invest in M.E.

We are asking everyone to please help us on our journey, but if you can’t afford to donate then please spread the word about Invest in M.E. and 

help us raise its profile and the need for more research and funding into this area.

The link to our Justgiving page is: -

http://www.justgiving.com/TonksWeightLossChallenge

or if you prefer, donations can be given for as little as £1 via text message, all you have to do is text:-

XPDL 95 £1 (or whatever amount you wish to donate) to 70070

Thank you.

Tanya, Dave, Keisha, Tasha and Tara Mawer

LDIFME bear meets..

The Let's do it for ME! bear has been out and about making new friends and raising awareness thanks to North East born performer, Jessica Robinson, who kindly invited him backstage at Middlesbrough's Little Theatre during her recent stint as Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Backstage at Middlesbrough theatre with Jessica

Jessica, 20, from Normanby, came fifth in the BBC programme Over The Rainbow, losing out on the lead West End role as Dorothy in Wizard of Oz to the eventual winner Danielle Hope in a sing off during the eighth live show.

Jessica received great feedback from the judges with Andrew Lloyd Webber describing her as a "world class star". She described her involvement in the TV contest as “a brilliant experience” and remains dedicated to achieving her goal of performing in the West End. 

A big thank you to Jess for taking good care of LDIFME bear and helping to raise awareness with these great pictures.

Meeting Claire King the 'Wicked Queen'

Backstage he also got to meet Bad Girls and Emmerdale actress Claire King, who starred alongside Jessica as the Wicked Queen. Bear wasn't scared at meeting the Wicked Queen, as he's a very brave little bear, but it did help that she wasn't wearing her fearsome costume. 

Thank you Claire for helping to raise awareness of the need for biomedical ME research!

LDIFME bear was last seen at Middlesbrough station boarding a train to London with Jess, and her many bags of luggage, as she returns to London and to her 2nd year of studies at Arts Ed. He is hoping to meet up with some more famous faces soon.. 

If you'd like a visit from LDIFME bear contact us at fundraising4me@gmail.com

Let's do it for ME!

LDIFME Bears are also available for adoption from our online shop. 

Free Shipping!

Free delivery is available on all orders over £30 from our Spreadshirt shops 27th Dec - 2nd Jan 2012. 

Make the most of the free shipping offer and choose your favourite products from the main LDIFME Shop and/or design your own LDIFME products in our Designer Shop. 

To apply the discount use the voucher code FREEDELIVERY at checkout.

Let's do it for ME!

* All profits from both our Spreadshirt shops go directly to Invest in ME towards the UK centre.

Thank you for your support!

New Designer Shop

When the kind people at Spreadshirt saw that our shop is raising funds for Invest in ME they took it upon themselves to upgrade us to a premium account for free. This charitable gesture means we can now offer you the opportunity to create your own products using LDIFME designs. The new 'Design Your Own' Shop means you can choose any item sold by Spreadshirt, in any colour, and add a LDIFME design, as well as other designs and text of your choice. You can choose from a selection of miscallenous free* designs from Spreadshirt as well as upload your own images or photos. As with all Spreadshirt Designer Shops, 20% is taken in commission which of course will go directly to Invest in ME.

The LDIFME Designer Shop can be accessed via the header of our the main LDIFME Shop or visited directly at http://designerme.spreadshirt.co.uk/

So now you can size and place designs yourself, and customise items to your own individual taste and style - or maybe that of a friend or loved one? If you wish to purchase a gift from either of our Spreadshirt shops for Christmas, your order must be placed by December 17th to guarantee delivery. 

So check out our new shop and/or revisit our original shop for some ME related goodies which will raise funds for Invest in ME and the UK centre.

Also visit Carmel Hillary's Cafepress ME Awareness shop for a great variety of ME products, featuring a wide range of designs. All funds from Carmel's shop also go directly to Invest in ME and towards the UK centre.

For further ME awareness and fundraising items see our Christmas Gifts for ME post.

Let's do it for ME!


* Free means no commission is taken by the designer, you will be charged the standard printing costs by Spreadshirt.

LDIFME Shop Now Open – with free delivery 29th - 30th October!

We declare the LDIFME Shop is now open! The LDIFME shop provides a range of products for both awareness and fundraising. All proceeds go to Invest in ME.

For each accessory (mugs, badges etc) and every item of kid's clothing purchased, £1 goes to Invest in ME. For each item of adult clothing purchased £2 goes to Invest in ME. If you wish to donate more than this amount, you can do so here – we have added these details to the product description for every item. 
We plan to add further items to the shop to include the Invest in ME logo, but are waiting for the use of the logo to be approved by Spreadshirt (as it is Copyrighted). You may wish to wait until these items are available to place your order. Unfortunately we cannot give a date by which they will be made available, as this is out of our hands. 

If you place your order 29th - 30th October you will qualify for free shipping. Use the voucher code WITCHINGHOUR at check out to apply this discount.

The best way to find out more is to visit the shop.


*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 research centre. See this campaign highlighted on the Invest in ME website here.

Photo Competition Update

Thank you to all those who have sent us photos to be included in the LDIFME album, as part of our Show Us Your Best Side awareness event and photo competition, so far.

We now have signs available for use in groups and at fund-raising events, and which include the Invest in ME logo - highlighting that all funds raised go directly to the charity.

We have received some lovely photos, but need many more - so please don't be shy!

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.

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.

And don't forget there's a prize in it for the most inspired photo! For the full details of our competition, see our previous post here.

*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.

Press Release: “Let's do it for ME!” Awareness and Fundraising Campaign.

A campaign has been launched by patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) to raise awareness and vital funds for a centre of excellence, the first of its kind in Europe.

The centre aims to translate biomedical research findings into appropriate treatments for patients with ME as rapidly as possible. The research proposed will be of the most advanced possible with a focus on immunology and virology, building upon the research database and enabling new areas of cooperation with other biomedical research facilities.

A spokesperson for the campaign said:

“The prospect of this centre is an exciting new development for patients.

Classified by the World Health Organisation as a neurological disease, the effects of ME are multi-systemic, affecting the brain, heart, musculo-skeletal, immune, endocrine, gastrointestinal systems. ME patients may go on to develop autoimmune diseases, heart problems and rare cancers; many have orthostatic intolerance and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.

Progress in research has been hampered in part by the complexity of ME, as studies have tended to look at the many and various symptoms, providing valuable insights into underlying pathology over the years, but not yet translating into treatments or discovery of the root cause of ME.

We believe the new centre will accelerate research by operating as a hub for national and international collaboration between doctors and scientists, progressing innovative and exciting new avenues for research enabled by advances in technology and science.

The centre would be based at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, with access to the excellent facilities of the research park on campus.

Patients seen at the new centre will be assessed according to the correct and up-to-date diagnostic criteria, which will provide the benefit of a positive diagnosis, rather than simply a diagnosis of exclusion of other causes, as well as the advantage of using well-defined patient cohorts for the research itself.

It will be a great relief for the many NHS doctors who are currently at a loss as to how to help patients presenting with such diverse and debilitating symptoms. As things stand, once given a diagnosis, there can be a tendency for either patient or doctor to attribute any new symptoms to the ME or CFS. Previous studies from UK universities have shown that up to 44% of patients given a diagnosis of CFS/ME were either misdiagnosed or had other, potentially treatable conditions.

The new centre will offer hope to some 250,000 people in UK with ME, particularly to the 25% who are severely affected, some unable to move, speak or swallow, and the 10% who are children. The campaign organisers also wish to honour the memory of two brave young women who were among those who have lost their lives to ME – Sophia Mirza died in 2005 aged 32, Lynn Gilderdale died in 2008 aged 31, having contracted ME at age 14. Specialist autopsies commissioned by their families showed similar damage in both cases to the spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia and sensory nerves.

We are immensely grateful to Invest in ME for taking such a positive step towards this goal and we hope that our campaign to achieve this will receive unanimous and widespread support”.


Press Release on Pressbox - Health

Press Release on Pressbox - Science

The press release can also be downloaded in pdf  here.