This Christmas national charity the ME Association will be bucking the trend by NOT asking its members for money. Instead, it will give them the chance to say ‘thank you’ to the people who support them – their unpaid carers.
Members will be asked to nominate that special person in their lives and nominees will be entered into a draw to receive a hamper of seasonal treats.
Over 250,000 people in the UK have the devastating, energy-sapping illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, 25% of them severely. They are supported by a vast community of unpaid and largely unsung carers.
“Carers are under-valued and often go unnoticed. The country owes them a huge debt because they work for free most of the time, giving vital support to family members and friends who have M.E.,” commented the charity’s campaigns director, Martine Ainsworth-Wells.
“The ‘From ME to You' campaign aims to recognise the support that carers provide to the charity's members. I wish we had enough funds to honour every carer this way.”
Because of the Cost of Living Crisis, the ME Association has decided this year not to ask the M.E. community to dip into whatever savings they have left to support the charity’s usual Christmas appeal. “Now's the right time to pause our fundraising and take some pressure off our generous but already hard-pressed members”, added Ainsworth-Wells.
The campaign starts with a card being posted out to every member this week. The card invites members to make their nominations online or by phoning the charity’s head office in Buckingham. Nominees will be selected randomly over a six-week period, with most of the hampers being posted out in time for Christmas.
The charity will acknowledge these ‘unsung heroes' by featuring stories from its members throughout the season.
Notes to Newsdesk / editors
The charity will be happy to share stories of our carers being recognised in this way. If you are interested in individual stories, please contact our press officer Tony Britton, email: tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk or phone 07946 760 811.
The ME Association – ‘Changing Attitudes, Improving Lives’ – was set up almost 50 years ago to bring hope to people living with ME, otherwise but rather misleadingly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Since then, it’s waged a constant battle against ignorance about the illness and an unfortunate tendency by many medics to dismiss the condition as being simply ‘All in the mind’. At the moment, there is no cure for the illness.
In recent years, the charity has successfully fought local and national campaigns to improve both the reliability of services for people with ME and the medical research aimed at boosting the evidence-base for new treatments and possible cures. The ME Association supports the latest National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guideline on how to manage the illness, which urges new exacting standards on treatment and care. The charity was involved in advising NICE for four years while they drew up these latest recommendations.
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Consultant, The ME Association
tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk Mob: 07393 805566
