Joyce's 50th Birthday Gift for ME!

 Joyce says ..

"I hit my half century this October 7th! The big 5-0!

Scented hankies? Bubble bath? Not this time please! Here's why: I'm celebrating my big milestone birthday by asking people to donate whatever they're able to 'Invest in ME', an independent UK charity raising funds for real bio-medical research into this devastating illness.

M.E. has robbed me of huge chunks of my life. M.E. affects the lives of 250,000 others in the UK alone. 'Invest in ME' hopes to open a UK Biomedical Research and Examination Centre for M.E. in Norwich, UK.

This will mean hope for effective treatment and an eventual cure for this disease. This is my dream and my prayer for all my fellow sufferers.

I was diagnosed with M.E. in 2006 after becoming very ill after the flu jab the previous year. Since becoming severely ill with giardiasis while working in Bolivia in the early 90s, I'd been ill in a 'boom and bust' pattern for more than a decade. I always tried to push myself beyond my limits working as a Methodist Minister. I'd wrongly put my exhaustion, pain and sickness down to my type 1 diabetes, constant viral infections and three bouts of shingles!

My collapse on 24th October 2005, on my way to lead family worship at one church where I was minister, finally convinced doctors that something much more serious was happening in my body. Over 6 months later after endless tests, M.E. was diagnosed: basically, a chronic neurological and immune illness that is relapsing-remitting like MS. After nearly four decades as an internationally recognized and categorized disabling neurological disorder, ME/CFS is still one of the most underfunded, maligned, miscategorized life-altering illnesses of our time.

I was largely bedbound at that time and now still housebound at times. I'm thankful that I have "better" days along with the really bad days now. Strict pacing of energy can help, sometimes, but not cure. M.E. means my body can't recharge its batteries after the least effort of muscles or concentration. This leads to disabling symptoms that make it terribly difficult to function a lot of the time. Made worse by my dodgy immune system imploding at any passing virus that shows its face!

But M.E. can never destroy my wacky sense of humour! It can't have who I am inside! I've so very much to be thankful for, to laugh about and to share. Can we make the big £5-0-0 to celebrate my big 5-0? Let's do it for ME!

Thanks so much to all my lovely friends, family, followers and well-wishers everywhere! I love you! XXX"

Happy 50th Birthday Joyce!  Many thanks for your wonderful birthday gift and to all those who are so generously helping you to celebrate in style!

Joyce also has a blog and you can follow her on Twitter - for links and to help Joyce achieve her birthday wish, see her fundraising page here on Everyclick.


 

*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!