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)
Elissa | £32
Sally | £10
We need justice for all our children and other loved ones with this debilitating illness. Rosie cannot be another patient who dies
Amy Haskins | £180
Longing and praying for freedom for loved ones who lives are being robbed by ME
Janet
Sheena Hewitt | £20
Think all the work you've been doing is fantastic. M.E.sufferer of 30 years.
Rachel Elliott | £25
Denise | £10
Yvonne Gardener | £20
Kathy Goodchild | £25
Thank you for helping us. In memoriam Emily Collingridge.
Kezzy
You guys keep up this good work!!
Linda | £25
Lindsay | £500
Keep up the good work; just knowing you're all out there fighting for sufferers like my daughter, (ill for 24 yrs since aged 12) makes it easier for us or to bear.
Richard | £100
Sarah | £310
In honour of Don & Margaret's Diamond Wedding.
Emily Frood | £10
#MEAction deserve as much help as they can possibly get - help them keep up the amazing work they do
Hemant Gurav | £1,164.29
All the best from the Cairn Football team in Edinburgh Scotland. Money was raised on Justgiving and they charged 5% as fees so the amount doesnt exactly match the one that the company matched! But it was a good team effort and we wish MeAction all the best for their advocacy efforts!
Bedfordshire M.E. Support Group | £500
In memory of Becki Luscombe, an awareness-raising campaigner herself
Findlay Muir | £1,242.50
All the best from Cairn Energy PLC. Our football team in Scotland competed in a corporate five-a-side tournament and while they didn't manage to win the tournament they succeeded in winning the ‘Best fundraisers’ trophy. The funds collected were all thanks to contributions from Cairn Energy employees and a few MEAction Scotland volunteers who donated generously. We wish MEAction UK every success in their advocacy efforts for the rights of ME patients in the UK and worldwide.
Richard | £100
little by little we will get there
Malcolm | £25
Donated by family Jack in honour of our friend Stuart on his 50th birthday
Anne | £10/M
Natalie | £50
Donating and hoping that Australia will be next! S.O.S! Good luck UK
David McGough | £10
I live with C-PTSD and M.E and suffered truly horrific health care experiences - My M.E worsened but due to total neglect and ignorance it has gone unsupported it puts myself into a worsened state of depths of despair both physically and mentally all the best for what you are about David McGough
Jules | £100
I have ME but raised this money by walking 25 miles in a month! A huge undertaking that has left me with a case of Shingles but I got a medal from Race At Your Pace and raised £100 so it was so worth it! Jules
Bedfordshire M.E. Support Group | £500
Landa Acevedo-Scott | £1,370.51
Eleanor Robinson | £50
Amy Haskins | £50
Shona Flaherty | £10
Patricia Brown | £25
I'm very proud to donate again towards employing a UK Co-ordinator to get more help for ME sufferers. Come on folks let's raise enough to employ them full time! Every little helps.