ME Awareness Week 2019 will be all about YOU and M.E! | 04 March 2019

March 4, 2019


 

Helen Hyland, Fundraising Manager, ME Association.

ME Awareness Week (6th to 12th May 2019) is the most important part of our year. It’s when we all work our hardest to tell the world that M.E. is indeed both Real and Physical. And we don’t do it alone.

We know that you, our amazing M.E. Community, will be using your precious spoons to come forward too, doing something, anything, to raise awareness of M.E.

Real people. Real disease. Real M.E.

The focus of this year’s campaign will be the Real M.E. Using images of Real people, telling the world that M.E. is a Real disease. Basically trying to get the message across about what M.E. feels like.

We know that it’s not an easy disease to describe. M.E. can be largely invisible and the symptoms can vary from person to person and in intensity and severity from one day to the next. So that’s where we need your help.

Talking to the Press
Our Press Officer, John Siddle, ambitiously proposes to develop this theme of the Real M.E. – bombarding the local newspaper offices the length and breadth of the country with photographs and stories of people with M.E. Trying to get your own story out there.

Sharing a story and being named publicly is not for everyone, so please don’t feel pressured to do so, but if this is something that does appeal, then please get in touch with John (john.siddle@meassociation.org.uk) and he'll try to get your story into the print/online media.

Your Photos and Video
Our Content Manager, Russell Fleming, has been working hard to show the world what M.E. looks like. He started the REAL ME campaign last year and it has gone from strength to strength, receiving over 400 photos, video clips and contextual stories from people with M.E.

This year we will be focusing again on this campaign and continuing to use your photos to help raise awareness. You can see one photo from each person who has taken part by visiting a new dedicated page on this website.

We will be expanding this page and including more photos as well as stories as we move closer to ME Awareness Week 2019. We are also happy to receive short (1-minute or less) video clips.

If you would like to be included in the campaign, and are happy for us to use your photos or video anonymously across our website and social media platforms then:

Please send them – together with a short explanation of the context – to Russell (russell.fleming@meassociation.org.uk) and title your email ‘Real M.E. Campaign’.

More fundraising than ever before…
Our fundraisers will be Going BLUE for ME again. We’ve already got an auction, a street collection, some runs, a skydive, and a Robbie Williams Tribute band. We know that there will be head shaves, blue hairstyles, tea parties and dress down (blue) days happening up and down the country.

If you fancy joining in the madness, we’d be thrilled to have you join us…. Please get in touch with me with any ideas you have – the dafter the better!

There’s a special free BLUE T-Shirt for every fundraising event that is organised – so get in early while we still have stocks of all sizes.

And we’ll have leaflets and posters to support your efforts too.

Already know what you are planning? Then please join our fundraising campaign on JustGiving: Go BLUE for ME – 2019.

Turn those local monuments blue!
We hope that this year there will be more civic monuments and landmarks lit BLUE than ever before. Please send your emails and letters now to your local council or landowners about prominent buildings or structures in your area that you feel ought to go BLUE for the week. This was Rhyl’s Sky Tower last year…

Help spread the word…
If you don’t have enough spoons to do very much then please don’t worry. Nearer the time, we’ll be releasing digital posters of Real people with M.E. that you could help to share far and wide throughout ME Awareness Week.

And if you are a member of the ME Association, you will receive your own personal copy of our main poster in the next ME Essential – for you to put up where you feel it will have greatest impact – your front window, your library, your supermarket, or your local community centre… 

Wear something BLUE!
You might want to think about dressing BLUE during the week and using your attire to help explain M.E. to other people when they ask. BLUE clothing and accessories can also provide a talking point.

Rosey Lowry has added this sumptuous BLUE bracelet to the beautiful jewellery collection that she makes and sells to raise funds for the ME Association. For every bracelet she sells, she will donate £5 to the ME Association. Clearly a little treasure of a bracelet. And available through her Etsy page ‘roseyandellen'.


Not sure what to do?
Take a look at our website for ME Awareness Week for ideas or review the gallery of events that happened last year. You should find some inspiration from those events that have been successfully completed before.

Or you can get in touch with me – Helen Hyland – and we’ll work up some ideas together.

If you would like to support us in continuing all our valuable work, then do please make a donation – anything you can spare – to support our ‘Go BLUE for ME – 2019‘ campaign of M.E. awareness.

Let’s make this the biggest and best ME Awareness Week yet! Thank you.


ME Association Registered Charity Number 801279


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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