Tag: ME

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ME AWARENESS WEEKS MONDAY 11th MAY – SUNDAY 17th MAY…

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The ME Association are going blue for ME to help raise awareness of ME.. Go Blue 4 ME, one of the ME Association’s most successful regular fundraising campaigns, will run again in 2020. It will be held during ME Awareness Week in May: Monday, May 11 – Sunday, May 17. They are currently working on the full campaign and will let you know all about it as soon as we can. In the meantime, you might like to consider previous events and begin to plan what you might do in 2020.

Why BLUE?  Because blue is the internationally accepted and recognised colour of M.E. Awareness. How you GO BLUE is entirely up to you… How far you go BLUE is also entirely up to you. Just do all you can to colour in this cruel invisible illness.

The ME Association say,

  • We published photos with REAL quotes from those featured in our campaign as info-graphics on the website and social media and you shared them in large numbers across your networks.
  • You shared your own images and stories and highlighted the issues you felt needed to be addressed, like research funding, medical education and medical care and support.
  • The legend of our campaign was shared far and wide across social media: “Real People. Real Disease. Real M.E.” as were the hashtags: #RealME #GoBLUE4ME #MEAwareness
  • Your efforts helped us to reach beyond our immediate community to raise awareness with those who are not directly affected.
  • For more inspiration, take a look at the 2019 Events Gallery.

Head over to the ME Associations website for some great ideas on how to raise funds for ME.

Action for ME is a UK charity which helps support and helps make a difference to people suffering from M.E.

What is ME? – ‘Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) is a long-term (chronic), fluctuating, a neurological condition that causes symptoms affecting many body systems, more commonly the nervous and immune systems. M.E. affects an estimated 250,000 people in the UK and around 17 million people worldwide.

People with M.E. experience severe, persistent fatigue associated with post-exertional malaise, the body’s inability to recover after expending even small amounts of energy, leading to a flare-up in symptoms.

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Not everyone will experience the exact same symptoms so it’s important not to compare someone who has M.E. to another person who has the illness. People with M.E. can vary enormously in their experience of the illness, and also how long their symptoms last. Some make good progress and may recover, while others can remain ill for a number of years and may not get better. Some people find that they don’t go back completely to the way they felt before they became ill, but they do recover sufficiently to lead happy and fulfilling lives. This is similar to many other chronic illnesses.’

Fibromyalgia sufferers understand what it’s like to suffer from chronic fatigue but M.E sufferers experience this in a much bigger way, a way which most people could not comprehend.  Several descriptions of illness resembling those of M.E and chronic fatigue syndrome have been reported for at least two hundred years but they say that ‘a lack of understanding and awareness about M.E. means patients can experience disbelief, and even discrimination, from friends, family, health and social care professionals and employers.’ Sounds familiar?

Fibromyalgia, CFS, and M.E all seem to have a similar pattern of not being accepted as a genuine condition or people suffering without a diagnosis. The only way to raise awareness of these conditions if for sufferers and carers to highlight the plight they are in. Action for M.E is just one of those charities trying to raise awareness of the condition. They take action to end the ignorance, injustice, and neglect faced by people with M.E. They do that by helping to improve the lives of people with M.E.  while taking action to secure change for the future.

Their mission is empowering people with M.E. to fulfil their potential and secure the care and support they need while working towards a greater understanding of the illness and ultimately a cure.

Action for ME logo

You can donate ‘Give Big for Me‘ to help fund vital information and support services for people suffering from M.E.

 

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THE FELDENKRAIS TECHNIQUE FOR PAIN AND POSTURE…

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Feldenkrais Therapy is an educational programme that enhances the communication between your body and your brain. It accentuates personal awareness of your body’s mobility patterns and uses movement and structural training. The movements are slow and gentle, and the focus is on correcting posture.

Through slow repetition of movements, you “unlearn” inefficient habitual movement patterns which are causing strain to certain areas of your body. It is similar to the Alexander Technique, in the sense that it is a learned method, rather than a therapy which involves manipulation of the muscles or bones.

It is named after its originator, Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984), an engineer and physicist as well as a Judo teacher. The benefits of this therapy include relief from tension and muscular pain, easier breathing, greater relaxation, improved performance in sport, dance music and drama and increased vitality.

By heightening our awareness of our movement, breathing and posture, the Feldenkrais Therapy will bring us closer to realising our full potential. Bringing this into our lives means we learn to move more freely, with greater ease, flexibility and grace.

It has been said that the method can permanently improve our posture, balance and coordination, to help people in pain have a more comfortable life. Feldenkrais UK are

are celebrating an International Feldenkrais Week in May. They say ‘
By heightening our awareness of our movement, breathing and posture, the Feldenkrais Method®brings us closer to realising our full human potential. Bringing this into our lives, we learn to move more freely, with greater ease, flexibility and grace. The Method can permanently improve our posture, balance and coordination, awakening our innate capacity for life-long vitality and continuing self-development.‘

You can also find a teacher and a class through the Feldenkrais UK website.

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M.E. MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS AWARENESS WEEK 6th-12th MAY. 2019…

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ME Awareness Week will run from 6th to 12th May 2019 with many activities focused on ME Awareness Day itself (Sunday 12th May). The focus of the ME Association’s awareness campaign for 2019 will be the Real M.E.

Promoting REAL stories and photos from REAL people, telling the world about the REAL disease that is M.E!  We’ll be sharing many of the hundreds of photographs and stories that you have sent to us, showing how this cruel disease can vary so much in intensity and severity both from person to person and even from one minute to the next for each person affected.

ME Association fundraisers are busy working up their madcap ideas for how they will Go BLUE in 2019.

Why BLUE?  Because blue is the internationally accepted and recognised colour of M.E. Awareness. How you GO BLUE is entirely up to you… How far you go BLUE is also entirely up to you. Just do all you can to colour in this cruel invisible illness….

Here are some ideas from ME Association -BLUE faces, BLUE hair, BLUE nails, BLUE themed raffle, BLUE profile photographs on social media, BLUE tongues, BLUE balloons tied to garden gates, Bake sales, plant sales, tea parties, supermarket and shopping centre collections, walks, concerts, orienteering, fun days… of perhaps a virtual BLUE Sunday.

People with M.E. disappear from society and can easily be forgotten and overlooked. Our mission for ME Awareness Week is to rectify that with our Real M.E. campaign. With your help.

Please share REAL stories and images far and wide between 6th and 12th May.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) is a long-term (chronic) fluctuating illness that affects many parts of the body, more commonly the nervous and immune systems. It may be diagnosed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

What is M.E.?

Symptoms vary from person to person but can include:
Physical and mental exhaustion (fatigue), which feels very different from ordinary tiredness
Post-exertional malaise: this means that any physical or mental activity can bring on an increase in symptoms, but not straight away
Intense muscle or joint pain
Inability to speak or concentrate
Extreme flu-like symptoms
Sleep disturbance
Dizziness and/or nausea
Hyper-sensitivity to light and sound.

Many people still believe that M.E. is all in the mind. This is simply untrue. Research has found potential biomarkers (physical evidence) for M.E. but much more research needs to be done to confirm the cause (or causes) and a cure.

Why should you care?

M.E. can affect anyone. It doesn’t care how old or young you are, or where you come from. People of any age, including children, can get M.E. It currently affects 1 in 250 people in the UK alone.

Some manage to struggle on with their lives. Others spend most of their time bedbound or housebound, unable to perform basic functions unaided.

One of the biggest frustrations expressed by people with M.E. is that family, friends, the media and even doctors often don’t believe their illness is real, or fail to understand just how debilitating it is. With your help, they can change this.