Dr Charles Shepherd, Hon. Medical Adviser, ME Association.
The ME Association strongly believes that ME Awareness Week is a key period of the year and one that can galvanise advocacy efforts. It is of utmost importance that we ensure the true nature of M.E. is made known far and wide. It can also help to bring the community together in ways that perhaps don’t happen at other times of the year.
You can find the survey on the Homepage of this website (about half-way down the page)
Raising awareness in a concerted way can help to make governments, doctors, researchers, employers, and other people of influence in our lives sit up and take notice. It can help to end the ignorance and remove the remaining stigma. And it is having an effect!
It might not seem like it when you are suffering from this cruel disease – but we believe that things are changing for the better, and more people are getting involved to support the cause.
But what does this special week mean to you? What issues do you believe should be the focus of ME Awareness Week?
Because everyone in our community knows that we have this one special week each year, efforts to raise awareness are more concentrated, and can reach more people while being arguably more effective. But could we be more focused in our efforts generally? And are there new ways we could approach ME Awareness Week going forwards?
This month’s website survey aims to highlight what you consider to be the most important reasons for having ME Awareness Week.
You might think, for example, that the best use of the week is to focus efforts on dispelling the myths that still surround M.E., or on improving access to appropriate medical care.
Perhaps you’d like to see new methods employed to raise awareness and instigate change.
Maybe you think that charities and groups should adopt single issues together or perhaps you feel that the more individual approach works best – with some supporting demonstrations, while others work the news-media or focus on social media engagement or a mixture of everything.
Feedback
We hope this survey will help spur a debate and that you will join the discussion on our Facebook page. But if you have any additional thoughts – about what our focus should be for next year or perhaps ways in which we might improve our efforts as a charity or as a community – then do please get in touch (title your email ‘Website Survey').
The ME Association
Real People. Real Disease. Real M.E.
We are a national charity working hard to make the UK a better place for people whose lives have been devastated by an often-misunderstood neurological disease.
If you would like to support our efforts – particularly during ME Awareness Week – and help ensure we can continue to inform, support, advocate and invest in biomedical research, then please donate today.
Just click the image opposite and visit our JustGiving page for one-off donations, to establish a regular payment or to create your own fundraising event.
Or why not join the ME Association as a member and be part of our growing community? For a monthly (or annual) subscription you will also receive our exclusive ME Essential magazine.
ME Association Registered Charity Number 801279