Dowload Find and Remind by Midnight to Raise 50p for Invest in ME!

Last chance!  Download Find and Remind before midnight TONIGHT (Friday 30th November 2012) and you’ll raise 50p for Invest in ME – completely free!

What is Find and Remind?

Find and Remind is a super-cool tool that helps you raise more! Basically it's an extension to your web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari) that will remind you every time a donation is available when you’re shopping online.

It’s safe, secure and used by thousands!
Absolutely free to use!
No adverts, and
You’ll never miss valuable donations again!
Plus, Find and Remind helps supporters raise up to 5 times more!

PLEASE NOTE - 50p donations are only available to new Find and Remind users, and will be verified and credited on Monday 3rd December 2012

Click to download Find and Remind.  

About Invest in ME on Easyfundraising.

Thank-you for your support!

Let's do it for ME!

We've got Christmas all wrapped up!

The ‘Let’s do it for ME’ elves have been very busy recently, and with Christmas not far away they thought they’d give you a helping hand.  All their hard work has paid off and we can now offer fantastic Christmas cards, calendars and gifts - all available to buy from the comfort of your home and delivered directly to your door.  Well, we did say we had it wrapped!  What’s more, you’ll be helping us too, since all purchases will raise much needed funds towards biomedical ME research.

Many thanks to all our little elves that have been working behind the scenes to make this happen.  Let’s do it for Christmas and ME!

Cards:

Following our very successful ‘Let’s Get Snapping for ME! 2012 Christmas Cards Photo Competition,’ we are pleased to announce that in the end 10 photographs were chosen to be printed.  All cards are A5 in size and produced on top quality 350gsm card.  They come in packs containing 10 cards, either featuring one design or all 10.  Please specify if ordering packs of individual designs.  All cards have the following message inside, ‘With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year’.  Prices per pack (including postage and packaging) are: 

UK £4.25

Europe £6.25

Rest of the World £7.25  

To order cards and for more information visit: http://www.investinme.org/Christmas%202012.htm 

Calendars:  

Our 2013 A4 calendar is now available and features 12 stunning photos, one for each month, of places all around the UK.   These were kindly donated by those with ME and supporters of our campaign.  There’s a generous grid for each month, handy for writing in those forthcoming appointments and events.  This is a quality product, with both the front and back cover of 350gsm card and the inner pages of 200gsm paper.  This makes it not only perfect for yourself, but a great gift too.  Prices per calendar (including postage and packaging) are:

UK £7.00

Europe £9.00

Rest of the World £10.00 

To order calendars and for more information visit: http://www.investinme.org/Christmas%202012.htm

  

  

From handmade decorations and toys to jewellery, we’ve got it all!  Introducing just some of the extensive range made by our crafty elves: 

Christmas decorations:



Santa stocking decoration  http://www.facebook.com/Maddikentbracelets4me 

Bird decoration http://folksy.com/shops/100Birdies4ME 

Both sellers feature on http://www.facebook.com/makeme#!/MakeMECrafts, a dedicated Facebook page with lots of crafties selling their wares in aid of our campaign. 

Handmade toys: 







Toy Owl: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.429092600442070.103776.408438105840853&type=3 

(This is not suitable for very young children because of the risk of choking due to its button eyes.)

Toy Ponies: http://www.makemecrafts.com/A-Scruffy-Pony-for-ME.html

Handmade jewellery:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.410552555629408.101119.408438105840853&type=3

There’s lots more jewellery sold by a number of sellers on the Make ME website

http://www.makemecrafts.com/jewellery/
and Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.429092600442070.103776.408438105840853&type=3#!/MakeMECrafts/photos_albums. 

  

Something for the boys:           
        

  

Paracord LDi4ME Wristband, available in various colourways and designs http://www.makemecrafts.com/LDIFME-Awareness-Ribbon-Wristband.html

Lanyard (ID holder and cord) http://www.makemecrafts.com/lanyards/

Soft furnishings:

http://www.facebook.com/Maddikentbracelets4me#!/media/set/?set=a.219270998200858.53289.190772114384080&type=3

Clothing:

There are some great 'Let’s do it for ME' clothing available in our online shop http://ldifme.spreadshirt.co.uk.  As well as more ME and Fibromyalgia inspired designs in both Carmel’s online shops http://653855.spreadshirt.co.uk/ and http://shop.cafepress.co.uk/m.e-awareness.  The cafepress shop even has ladies nightwear and iPhone cases.  Or why not take a look at Mama Chill's shop http://616915.spreadshirt.co.uk/.

Books, CDs and Audio Downloads:

Running To Stand Still - Audio play about ME available on CD and to download: http://ldifme.org/running-to-stand-still/ 

Many Happy Returns – Downloadable audio sci-fi drama: http://ldifme.org/many-happy-returns/

Mama Chill’s downloadable single: http://ldifme.org/mama-chill-single/

Lost Voices - Book: http://www.investinme.org/LostVoicesBook/IiME%20Lost%20Voices%20home.htm

All card and calendar images are copyrighted to Invest in ME/Let's do it for ME for the photograph owners

Christmas Tree design © Gummy231 Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

SOBAFF CHARITY WALK for IiME

SOBAFF (Supporters of British Armed Forces & Families) has a promotional website for both American and British Forces Charities, but they will promote all worthwhile charities and organisations made up of volunteers like themselves and you can now read about Invest in ME charity on the SOBAFF website.

The SOBAFF site is linked to the Facebook group "500 Mile Expedition", a group formed to assist HOT - Honour Our Troops in raising funds by walking 500 miles from Catterick in North Yorkshire to The Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, the home of the Chelsea Pensioners.

IiME Charity were very honoured to announce in October that SOBAFF has agreed to donate funds raised during their next 500 mile walk to Invest in ME. This was initiated thanks to Alex Hall who made contact with SOBAFF and suggested Invest in ME.

The walk will be from Catterick in North Yorkshire starting on 29th April 2013 and they will be walking to The Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, the Home of the Chelsea Pensioners, to arrive on 24th May 2013.

The walk will finish in London just before the Invest in ME (IiMEC8) conference.

SOBAFF have support from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and the walk is supported by him.

SOBAFF have said, "With issues surrounding the Disabled in the UK, we would like to be able to help you raise funds for your charity".

Invest in ME look forward to be able to work with SOBAFF and to promote the walk and the worthwhile work they are doing in raising awareness of the sacrifices being made by others.

Anyone wishing to be involved by walking the whole or part of the route or by helping, may find out more by visiting the links below.

The current sponsor for the walk is Ocado, who are based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. They will be supplying refreshments along the chosen route.

SOBAFF have once again gained support from the pop group, The Proclaimers, although unfortunately they will not be at the event as they will be out of the country, on tour.

SOBAFF have a GPS system on their website, by which one will be able to follow the walkers' progress, as and when it starts, or the planned route.

LDIFME (Let's do it for ME) Bear was excited to hear that Baxterbear will be making appearances along the route.  Baxterbear was born 29th February 1928, is a well liked bear by both adults and children alike and has since travelled the world on his journeys.  Many of Baxterbear's tales and journeys can be found: http://worldofbaxterbear.com/

To read more about this event on the Invest in ME website:http://www.investinme.org/IIME-Campaigning-News-Oct12-06.htm

To find out more about SOBAFF and this event on their website:http://www.sobaff.com/

Baxterbear

With thanks to SOBAFF and all involved in supporting this event.

Thank you for your support of Invest in ME charity from the Team at Let's do 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!

Suzanne Hudson 'Winter Landscape' - 375 votes

Claire De Marinis 'Bailey' - 300 votes

Kate Stanforth 'Icicles' - 149 votes

Danielle Lee 'Toby' - 142 votes

Kelsey Palmer 'Star' - 142 votes 

2012 Summer Trivia Quiz - Winners Announced!

    

Raising money for Invest In ME and The Pain Relief Foundation.

Thanks to everyone who bought a Trivia Quiz this year and also a huge thank you to everyone who made such generous donations. We’re so grateful. We were really impressed with the high standard of the quiz entries. It was very close, but we do have a winner of the 1st prize of £40, Chris Simmons from Norwich, who scored an incredible 99/100! 2nd Prize of £15 goes to Helen Catling from Peterborough and the posh organic choc for coming in 3rd goes to Owen James from Hunstanton. Well Done!!

The total amount raised for Invest In ME is £1,203 and amazingly this was matched (£1000 by one friend and £203 by two others) and donated to The Pain Relief Foundation. The prizes had also been donated so that all the funds raised went to the causes. Thank you SO much for your amazing generosity.


Finally thanks to Jo Best & Paul Kayes for spreading the word so effectively, and to Rowan , Charlene and Mum for being top quiz sellers! and everyone else who helped us especially Paul and all the Hursts and Allens :-)

For an answer sheet just email calamity-jane@sky.com. Oh and if anyone has outstanding quiz-sale funds or would still like to make a donation our Justgiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/Summer-Trivia-Quiz-2012 will be open for another 3 months (these donations will not be matched though). Thanks again :-)

Love,

Jane and Geoff
PS. We promise next years Quiz will be easier! Honest!

 

Jane Hurst                                    Geoff Allen

      









   



                       

Both Geoff and I have suffered with Severe ME for over 14 years - Prior to ME we both enjoyed full, active lives. We worked, we travelled, played sport, had social lives, and, well, put simply, we had our freedom and our health. Sadly ME has taken all this away, as it has for so many of our friends.  Pain and distressing neurological symptoms dominate each day, in fact most days can feel like nothing short of an endurance test.  This quiz had been organised to help raise money for Invest In ME, a charity that campaigns for vital biomedical research into ME, with the hope that one day a cure will be found for this blimmin horrid illness.  Incredibly, all money raised by this quiz was matched by a hugely generous friends and donated to The Pain Relief Foundation (Charity No. 277732).  This is a charity which funds research into the causes and treatment of chronic pain.  Millions of people in the UK alone, including many with ME/Fibromyalgia, experience severe chronic pain.  It goes without saying that it’s hugely distressing to live with on a daily basis, especially when  pain drugs aren’t tolerated which is often the case for ME sufferers, therefore research into the causes and treatment of chronic pain is vitally important.

Here is some more general info on ME: 

ME is recognised by the World Health Organisation as a serious neurological illness. It affects around 240,000 people in the UK alone. It is a potentially severe, disabling and chronic condition affecting the immune and central nervous system, and varies greatly in its severity and duration. Some people do recover or at least make a partial recovery, but for many, symptoms remain for decades. These symptoms include incapacitating exhaustion after even the slightest activity, together with malaise, nausea, joint and muscle pain, and disturbances of major body systems eg.respiratory, auto-immune and cardio-vascular. Severe chronic pain and major digestive problems are also common. Very severely affected sufferers can experience paralysis, severe light & noise intolerances & some even require tube or intra venous feeding.

'Let's Get Snapping for ME' 2012 Christmas Cards Photo Competition Online Vote

The ‘Let’s do it for ME’ team has been very busy over the last few days looking through all the entries. We have been overwhelmed by the response to the competition, and with 180 photographs we certainly have had our work cut out. The quality and creativeness of the photos sent in has amazed us. This has made selecting those for the online vote, whilst very difficult, enjoyable too. Once again, we would like to thank everyone for taking part. Now it’s your turn to vote! You can vote in two ways, either by sending an email to fundraising4me@gmail.com stating your chosen photos. (To make it easier to identify and vote for photos on the website we have numbered them. When emailing us, all you need to do is state the number of the photo or photos you have chosen. Please note you should use the number allocated to each photo on this webpage, the one displayed beside the name of each entrant, not that in the gallery if you are scrolling through photos. You can however, subtract 1 in the gallery and this will match its allocated number.) Alternatively, you can go to our Facebook Competition Event’s Page and simply ‘Like’ your chosen photos. You can vote for as many photos as you want. But remember, online voting closes at midnight on Sunday 7th October. We aim to print the five most voted for photos on our 2012 Christmas Cards. Although, there are possibly plans afoot to print more given the quality of entries – so watch this space! The winners will be announced on 12th October, both on the website and our Competition Event’s page.  Please note the competition is now closed to new entries. Congratulations to everyone who has made it to the online vote. Good luck!

1 - Gareth Flynn

2 - Danielle Lee

3 - Claire de Marinis

4 - Frank Lockwood

5 - Julie Cusworth

6 - Sarah Hennell



7 - Diana Winfield



8 - Sarah Hennell

9 - Gareth Flynn



10 - Trevor Drewery

11 - Julia Cottam

12 - Naomi Kratz

13 - Sarah Mozer

14 - Stephen Cox







15 - Kirsty Turner

16 - Suzanne Hudson

17 - Rosemary McCready

18 - Rosemary McCready

19 - Shona Robson



20 - Kelsey Palmer

21 - Sarah Mozer

22 - Maddison Kent



23 - Gareth Flynn

24 - Suzanne Hudson

25 - Kate Stanforth









'Let's Get Snapping for M.E!' 2012 Christmas Cards Photo Competition

  

 

 

We are proud to announce the launch of our ‘Let’s get Snapping for M.E!’ 2012 Christmas Cards Photo Competition. This is a fantastic opportunity to get your photos printed on Let’s Do it for ME’s 2012 Christmas cards. The cards will be sold to help raise funds towards our £100K campaign target (see leaflet for more details). We know there are many budding and talented photographers out there and we want to give you a chance to shine. The competition is open to anyone of any age. It really is that inclusive!

 

Photos can be of anything you like, but must have a Christmassy feel. Traditional snowy scenes (this will probably be last winter’s photos unless you happen to live near the Cairngorms), baubles, Christmas cookies, or something a little more inventive. It’s entirely up to you. All photos must be in digital format. We recommend using an 8 Megapixel camera or higher to produce a good quality image, particularly if you are heavily cropping photos. Please email your photos to fundraising4me@gmail.com by 30th September 2012, remembering to clearly state your name and email address. Those under 16 must have the permission of their parents/guardians.

 

The Let’s Do it for ME team will judge the first stage, with the chosen photos being posted on this website and on the Competition’s Event page on 5th October. The second stage, the exciting bit, is where you get to vote for your favourite ones. You can vote either by emailing us or casting votes on the Competition Page by ‘Liking’ the photo. Voting will close at midnight on 7th October. Those with the most votes will win and be printed. Where there are equal votes the Let’s Do it for ME team will decide which photos are printed. We aim to print the top five photos and will officially announce the winners on 12th October. We hope to have the cards ready for sale around the beginning of November.

 

Winners will not only get their photos printed up on our cards but also receive free packs of this year’s Christmas cards featuring their winning photo. There’s never been a better way to share your talent and do something positive for M.E!

Competition Rules:

 

1) Entrants agree that Let’s Do it for ME and Invest in ME are allowed to print winning photos for fundraising and awareness purposes.

2) Entrants agree that any photos sent in can be used for awareness purposes by Let’s Do it for ME and Invest in ME.

3) Entrants agree that their full names can be used in association with their photos.

4) Entrants are not allowed to vote for their own photos.

5) Only five photos per person are allowed to be submitted into the competition.

6) The winners will be notified by email.

7) The results of the competition will be posted on this website as well as on our Competition’s Facebook Event page.

8) Let’s Do it for ME reserves the right to replace winning photos if, when going to print, we are unable to reproduce a high quality image from them.

 

If you have any questions regarding the competition please email us at fundraising4me@gmail.com or leave a post on our Competition Event page.

 

Good luck everyone!

 

 

To help you get a head start here’s a few tips and tricks

 

Create your own mini home studio

• Find a naturally well lit spot in your home. A conservatory is particularly good. Alternatively, a shady spot in the garden will do. 

• If the natural light isn’t very good indoors put the light on in the room, even use a lamp to help light what you are photographing. Try to avoid using a flash if you can, it tends to spoil photos. 
• To make a backdrop, drape some fabric over a chair or sofa. You can also use card or paper, or be a little more adventurous as shown in (1). You can also lay the fabric, card etc. flat on a table or bed.

  
Other useful tips 

• Gather together objects you to want to photo, materials etc. and anything you think may be useful. This means you have everything in one place and to hand, it also makes easier to experiment with as well as less time and energy consuming.
• Play around with your shots, taking them, for instance, from different angles and different perspectives. You’d be surprised just what a difference this can make. (see 2, 3, 4, 5)
• Make sure you don’t overtire yourself. Take rests.
• If you find holding a camera difficult use a book to rest it on when taking photos.
• If taking photos outside a lightweight camping/fishing fold out stool is very handy.
• And most importantly have fun!

 * All photos that feature have been taken with an 8MP point and shoot camera.