Grow our #MEAction UK Team
£59,749.10
Raised
2189
Donations
£55,000
Goal
This is the crowdfunding campaign to hire a UK-based #MEAction organiser. To find the campaign to support our global team based in LA, click here .
Our goal for the UK campaign is US$75,000 or ~ £55,800 for salary, taxes, travel, expenses and associated costs. Once we've reached half the goal (US$37,500 or £27,900), we'll start the search to fill this position.
Want to gift-aid your donation? Email [email protected] .
Hi. I’m Jennifer Brea, the co-founder of #MEAction, a global, grassroots advocacy network fighting for ME equality. I'm sorry this isn't in video form, but I don't quite have it in me today to record one (it's been a long few weeks and an even longer year!) but after the incredible momentum created by Saturday, 12th May, I couldn't wait for my recovery to start talking about what comes next.
In 2016, #MEAction launched the #MillionsMissing campaign. In just two short years, we've grown from actions in 12 cities to more than 300 around the globe! In London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cardiff, Sheffield, Southampton and over two dozen more cities across the UK, you brought in more patients, more carers and family, more allies than ever before.
I couldn't make it to my local protest this year as I am pretty badly crashed, so I recorded my speech in which I described a vision for what I want to achieve in Los Angeles , the city where I now live. The video isn't really about LA: it's about what I think we can all fight to achieve in our local communities, no matter where we live. It's a vision for the next few years of powerful, local organising and outreach that is networked and coordinated for national and global impact. We saw that come true at this year’s actions in a way and on a scale that we've never seen before. We can continue to deploy the strategies and ethos of #MillionsMissing not just on 12th May, but throughout the year, by working together school by school, doctor by doctor, politician by politician until we've changed the world.
This is the power of a volunteer, grassroots movement. However, what we are finding here in the US – and the only way we were able to scale #MillionsMissing 2018 to 300 actions – is how much more impact we can have with full-time staff to support and coordinate the efforts of local organisers, build common resources and toolkits, and take a long-term, strategic view.
A few weeks ago, we launched an Indiegogo campaign to provide general support for the global #MEAction network. In it I said that, if we exceeded our goal, we would fundraise to hire a full-time organiser in the UK. But with the momentum you created, it’s clear that we can’t wait. We need to seize on this opportunity. To that end, we’re launching this second crowdfunding campaign expressly to hire a UK-based organiser. That person would be tasked with the following:
Community organising & outreach: Grow the movement by expanding the number of patients, carers, friends and family involved. Seek out opportunities to ally with disability rights organisations, MPs, MSPs, influencers and charities from related diseases. Grow our circle of physician and healthcare allies.
Coordination: Support #MEAction UK and #MEAction Scotland volunteers, local patient groups, and #MillionsMissing organisers around the country to take coordinated action throughout the year. Work with organisers to set long-term goals and develop a strategic plan to reach them.
Advocacy: Support our ongoing parliamentary outreach efforts and calls to action.
Medical & scientific outreach: Execute our efforts to accredit the documentary Unrest for continuing education and bring it to even more medical and nursing schools, as well as NHS trusts and boards.
Partnerships: We don’t want to duplicate the longstanding, hard won efforts of others. Wherever possible, we want to continue to collaborate with established U.K. charities and organisations. And yet we believe #MEAction has a unique role to play in the UK as the grassroots organizing and outreach arm of a national and global movement. I believe we will be most powerful when we work together, with the same overall mission, from different angles and perspectives.
Link Los Angeles to London: Our LA team will still be supporting efforts in the UK, as we have always done, working hard on social media and communications, graphic design and educational video creation; writing the continuing medical education curriculum; and even press outreach. But with the help of our UK organiser, we’ll be able to leverage our work and yours to much, much greater effect.
So if you live in the UK, and have the means to support both this and the Indiegogo campaign , it is so important to do so (we are still working hard for you in LA as well as organizers around the world!). But if you can only give to one #MEAction campaign, please support this one.
We want to hire as soon as possible. This is a hugely important time for people with ME, as the NICE guidelines are updated, as we continue to fight for research funding commensurate with disease burden, as we fight against the dismissal this disease still so often meets in doctors surgeries, we need all the organising power possible. As soon as we meet 50% of our goal, we'll begin our search for #MEAction's first, full-time UK team member. I can't wait to get them working, so please give what you can (if you can) and help us spread and share this campaign.
Thank you for your support!
Donor Wall (171)
Jacqueline
Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has." Our ME awareness campaign is a case in point. Keep the faith everyone! XXX
Lynn | £25
I asked for birthday money donations for my chosen charities, which I have split equally and donated.
Sally Delmage
Richard Ensor | £10
nearly there
A | £5
Thank you for putting on such an incredible event this year. Your efforts are giving everyone strength and will really change the world for many!
James Wood | £10
Alan Creaser | £3/M
Spend it Wisely!!.... :)
Jane | £25
Alice | £5
Thank you for the crucial work you do.
Clare May
Michele Banal | £10
Amy Haskins | £100
Rebecka
Happy birthday, Tanya!
Sharon Wise | £5
#MEAction the campaigning you do gives us hope that research and treatment one day will help my daughter live a healthy life again. Thanks for promoting awareness with your Unrest film.
Alan Creaser | £25
Rachel Elliott | £100
#MEAction does brilliant campaigning work. This gives me hope that change will come and one day my daughter will get the treatment and care she needs to give her back her life.
Ana
It has been a long and lonely journey with this illness, apart from Edinburgh Self-Help Group's support. Well done ME ACTION !
Karen Radenkova | £10
I pray that one day my daughter will once again be able to live the life she had made for herself instead of being stuck in four walls back with her parents for four years
Geraldine Smith | £10
Helen Haw | £10
Janet
This is for myself , Person Experiencing ME/CFS/FM too ill to work safely since 1983 Not diagnosed until 1997, treated for migraine, depression, with drugs and exercise on prescription, And for the daughter of a member of our local MEA support group removed, I believe the term is sectioned to the Psych Ward of a local hospital ,not permitted visitors (Sound like Per Fink?) This is the UK for goodness sake! Another two Group families are experiencing, child protection issues.This is for all the PE ME/CFS/FM PEOPLE I know and don't know AND THEIR FAMILIES AND SUPPORTERS & #MEACTION
valerie moody | £20
debate great start. from one of the Millions missing. appreciate the wonderful work and dedication of the team.
Kate | £10
Penelope Evans | £5
Sally Hewitt | £20
Keith Harbottle | £50
Jackie Baker | £25
Emma Katz
Andrew Stark | £10
Margaret Harding | £10