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Southend Half Marathon

In a magnificent run, Sarah Stone completed the Southend Half Marathon on Sunday 8 June in 2 hrs and 4 mins, raising over £1,800 for ME Research UK. The course went along Southend Sea Front and was a beautiful day — although very hot for the runners.

Sarah explains, “I wanted to raise money for the charity as ME is an illness very close to my heart since my brother, Matthew, has suffered from it for the last six years and now has it so severely he has been in bed for the last five years. I hope that the money raised will help with the ongoing research and ultimately to find a cure.” (Read Matthew’s story here.)

Sarah’s Justgiving page is still open if you wish to contribute after the event, and our warm thanks go to Sarah for 124 minutes of uplift for people with ME everywhere.

Guitar Gig in Newcastle Upon Tyne

Alan and Yvonne Hume held the latest in their series of biannual gigs on Saturday 10th May 2008 at The Corner House, Heaton Road, Newcastle. Beverley Thompson describes the night:

Another night of superb entertainment was provided by Alan and Yvonne Hume, Bob Lang and friends, with the help of the Cramlington Folk Club team of John, Dave and their wives, who managed the sound system. The musicians played and sang their hearts out. I think this musical event was the best so far.

The Corner House Pub, with the manager Chris Hunter, provided us with another wonderful complimentary feast at half time which made some of us forget we were on a diet. It is great having our own bar at the end of the room and I’m sure all those of us who weren’t designated car drivers partook of the liquid refreshment enthusiastically; we do hope they’ll have us back for the next one soon. Also, the raffle — run by Mandy and Dave Allan — was a great success, and had some good prizes indeed.

The gig started off with music played by ‘Folklore’ comprising the two guitarists, Alan and Bob with Yvonne who sang the harmony. Sadly, Alan had hidden Yvonne’s tambourine so she couldn’t bash the old tambo. The night had started with a bang and we were all clapping and singing along in no time. There were so many memories for those of us who were flower children in the sixties and perhaps still are hippies from that era — even though the hair has become greyer and the dancing feet not quite so nimble. Magic, all of it. Quite a few of the supporting musicians were past pupils of Alan’s classes and I could only marvel at their expertise and hope that as one of Alan’s present pupils, I too will play as well one day. Alan compered as seamlessly as ever and we heard interesting tales of the origins of the songs and their composers as well as witty asides about the guitarists which go to make Alan’s guitar gigs.

Of course the serious object of these bi-annual Guitar Gigs is to raise money for ME Research UK, and the evening — including Northern Rock Foundation’s “single matching” of the raffle money and half of the ticket sales — raised over £5,625, bringing the total raised in the past 12 months to £10,275.

Alan is hoping to run another fund raising gig in November, 2008.

Presentation at New Horizons conference

Our New Horizons conference on May 6th had several highspots, but a major one was the presentation to Dr Vance Spence of a portrait! The watercolour had been painted by Moira Robb, who had been a professional portrait painter before contracting ME which has left her very severely affected with neurological and brain symptoms.

Dr Julia Newton presented the portrait to Vance at the end of her own keynote lecture, and as she explained, “It was Vance’s 60th birthday very recently, and I’ve been asked to present him with this portrait to honour this landmark lifetime event, but also in recognition of all his work on behalf of ME patients over the past 25 years. Many people with ME have known about the progress of the ‘secret’ portrait for a long time, but it seems secrecy has been maintained, and today seems the perfect time and perfect venue to present the final work, which Moira says should come from all ME patients.”

Moira says, “My aim was to capture the twinkle in his eye and his sense of humanity, and the painting is to say a big thank you for shining a light of truth on this illness which has taken away so much of our lives.” As Vance was unfortunately not able to attend the conference, he was given the portrait symbolically via a huge overhead-projected image; the real thing was presented later at a private ceremony.

Steve’s Tour De Force

Steve Cox loves cycling — indeed, he cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End in 2006 (pictured) — and has just completed a tour from the north to the south of France for ME Research UK.

Steve’s wife, Rosie, has had ME for most of her life, and Steve’s wish is to see her well and touring with him saddle by saddle. Rosie explains, “Steve’s marathon cycle started on 24th May from Calais to Arras; by May 29th he had reached Tournas on his way to Tournon sur Rhone; and by 2nd June he had finally reached the Mediterranean at Montpelier. A long and hard slog, but he loved doing it.”

Steve’s Jusgiving website will be open until August if you want to contribute to thank him for his ’Tour De France‘.

ME Awareness Week 2008 in Northern Ireland

Antoinette Christie of Familyfights4me had a hectic ME Awareness week planning a series of events in Belfast designed to energise awareness of the illness that has severely affected her son, David (read more about him here).

The first big event was the Belfast Marathon on Monday 5th May, and Antoinette had teams in the Team Relay with five people in each team. Other events included a fundraiser in the Laurel Leaf Bar on May 10th, “Remembering the Children with ME” at Curley’s Supermarket on 12th May, and a collection on National ME Awareness Day at ASDA Shopping Centre. Excitingly, West Belfast Black Taxis has nominated Antoinette’s campaign to receive the money from its wishing well for the whole month of June 2008.

Thanks to Antoinette and the family for all their work for what has been a “rollercoaster” month — and a full compliment of photos of the month’s events can be found on Antoinette'’s Bebo page.

Presentation to the Cambridge ME Support Group

On Monday 5th May, the evening before our conference at the Wellcome Trust Conference Centre outside Cambridge, Sue Waddle visited the local Cambridge ME Support Group to give a powerpoint slide presentation on ME Research UK, its role, and current biomedical research projects.

The meeting at the Hilltop Carers’ Centre was attended by group members, families, carers and friends, and the hour-long presentation — covering issues such as funding, diagnostic issues and research projects on brain imaging, gene markers and vascular investigations — was followed by a question-and-answer session, and the presentation of a group donation towards MERUK’s research programme.

Rosemary Humby, committee member of the group, said, “We were absolutely delighted to have Sue Waddle from ME Research UK come and talk to our group — she is an excellent ambassador for the charity. It was a most enjoyable evening, and Sue gave us lots of interesting information; it was sobering, however, for us all to see just how limited MERUK’s research budget is, especially compared to that of UK cancer research charities! We’ll continue to watch the progress of their projects with great interest.” The group photo shows (L to R) Sue, Rosemary Humby and Linda Foley at the end of the meeting.

Rosemary and seven other members of the group attended the New Horizons conference on May 6th, the day after Sue’s talk, and helped greatly by organising and monitoring the poster sessions! So, a great thank you from Sue and the team to Rosemary and the group!

London Marathon Heroes 2008

As a fundraising event, there is no marathon in the world that comes close to the Flora London Marathon. One of the dominant images of the race is that of thousands clad in fancy dress, tramping the cobbles in support of charitable causes dressed as rhinos, football team mascots, giant trees and the like. By 6.30 pm on 13th April 2008, 34,420 runners had crossed the finish in The Mall, making the Flora London Marathon 2008 the third biggest in the 28 years of the event. And three of them were running for ME Research UK!

Our warmest congratulations go to Robert Ogden and Madhi Choudhury, and Ian Bottomley who coursed home within 13 minutes of each other, around the 4 hour mark — a tremendous achievement. The lads’ Justgiving webpages are still open for donations, and to date have jointly raised almost £4,000 for our charity.

Highlander Mountain Marathon

To raise awareness and help fund further research into ME, Simon Overton’s friends Jon Gay and Peter Ward ran the gruelling Highlander Mountain Marathon, a two-day event in the Scottish Highlands which started on Saturday 5th April 2008. Jon and Peter came third against stiff opposition from more well known teams, so this was an astounding result — and they finished the event still wearing ME Research UK vests. Jon said, “It certainly spurred us on knowing we were running for such a worthwhile cause.”

Simon knows what the illness is like. Following a viral infection, he was admitted to hospital with symptoms of weakness that increased on standing. He also had a number of other symptoms that showed central nervous system involvement. At the time Simon was told that his condition was “all in the mind”. He recovered, but climbing at altitude in the Tien Shan (The Sky Mountains, one of the world’s biggest and highest mountain land on the south of Central Asia), he relapsed and was told by a neurologist in the Kazakhstan capital Almaty that he had a problem with the blood supply to his brain.

As he explains, “On returning to the UK, I faced the disbelief that many people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis encounter from doctors. I continued to be severely intolerant to exercise with numerous relapses and hospital admissions, but with the assistance of Prof. Terry Daymond, Dr Byron Hyde and Dr Vance Spence, I was eventually seen by Dr Julia Newton at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who has received a start-up grant from ME Research UK to investigate the link between orthostatic symptoms and ME. She was able to demonstrate that I did indeed have a problem with his autonomic nervous system.”

At present, Simon is awaiting surgery later in the year to correct some of the damage to his autonomic nervous system, and says that “this is one success story that would not have been possible without the work of ME Research UK”.

Jon Gay (pictured) who ran the Highlander Mountain Marathon was the man who single-handedly helped organise Simon’s rescue after his collapse at altitude. Jon and Peter have created a Justgiving page so people can donate towards their efforts — they say that donations are most welcome!

TICR Journal Club

The Institute of Cardiovascular Research (TICR) at the University of Dundee holds a regular journal club for researchers and clinicians to discuss new research, and on Friday 28th March the subject was ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: New Paradigms’, sponsored by ME Research UK. Presentations by Dr John Dick, Dr Gwen Kennedy and Dr David Newton were followed by a lively discussion. The meeting was a good opportunity to educate a broad audience about clinical and research aspects of ME/CFS.

Fundraiser for ME research in Belfast

Saturday 27th October was the date for Antoinette Christie’s fundraising night at the Devenish Arms, Belfast. Over 500 people came for the night, and the evening was opened with a song from Andrea Hanaway, followed by a few opening words from Dr Vance Spence, Chairman of ME Research UK, who had come from Scotland with his wife to support the event and say thank you to Antoinette and the family. Councillor Bernie Kelly, the Deputy Mayor of Belfast (pictured with Vance), was a distinguished guest (read her report of the event from the South Belfast News).

As she said, “I attended this fundraising event to help raise awareness of ME, which has affected Antoinette’s son, David, and stripped his young life of everything he once took for granted. I was saddened to hear about the lack of support for people like David and his family and pledged to help the family access services.”

Entertainment was provided by the compere for the evening, Citybeat presenter Robin Elliot, followed by Michael Persell (as Neil Diamond), Tony Ajir (as Lionel Richie) and Bernard Tohill (as Joe Dolan), and the revelers spent the remaining hours dancing the night away with DJ Pado, and more songs from Andrea Hanaway!

As Vance says, “All of us at ME Research UK would like to add our voices to the congratulations to Antoinette for the marvellous evening. We were impressed by the energy and drive that Antoinette and her family and friends had put into it, and particularly moving was the concern of everyone there about the biomedical predicament of her son; like so many others, the family seems to have been left to cope as best they can. As Antoinette says, there should be a proper ME clinic in Belfast putting priority on biomedical investigation, and a dedicated ME nurse who can visit the housebound.”

Liphook and District Businessmen’s Association bike ride 2007

The 17th annual LiDBA (Liphook and District Businessmen’s Association) presentation evening was on 4th October 2007, and £51,500 which had been raised for the 67 beneficiary charities was presented. The bike ride is one of the biggest fundraising events in East Hampshire, and ME Research UK was presented with a cheque for £973.50 (£623 of which was collected by the bike riders, with £350 more donated by LiBDA). For the third year running, Cathy Susans, a nurse from Haslemere and a very successful fundraiser, organised the LiBDA riders for ME Research UK.

The cheque was accepted on our behalf by Cathy Susans and Tracy Tayler, mother of Suzy who has been severely affected with ME since Christmas 2001 and whose story can be read here. Our grateful thanks go to Cathy Susans, and Tracy, Roger and Suzy Tayler for these fantastic annual efforts on our behalf.

Summer Days at Aberdour

ME Research UK supporter Moira Robb was one of the contributors at the Aberdour Arts Exhibition, part of the 2007 Aberdour Festival. Moira’s friend, Volker Rosenberg, had previously donated one of his paintings to the charity (pictured below), and he, Moira and the group of artists have been firm friends to us over the years.

Moira and her husband came to the Gateway one afternoon to present us with a cheque for £350 (Moira is pictured with Vance) as the proceeds of the festival which is held annually at a number of venues throughout the Fife village; and thousands of visitors come every year to experience the art and performances of dance and creativity from around the world, including bellydancing, henna painting, tabla drumming, and historical fighting displays from The Swords of Dalriada and the famous Donkey Brae Run.

940-mile trek by Alex, Jody and Nick

Cyclists Alex Braun, Jody Payne and Nick Horder have just completed the 940-mile ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise awareness of ME and raise money for biomedical research. Their plan was to cycle the complete route in 10 days, covering 100 miles a day and spending up to eight hours in the saddle at a time, and they achieved this — a great feat!

Alex’s mother, Susan, has had ME for nearly 7 years now, and has been bed-bound for over two years. As Alex says, “I cannot explain how much it has affected not only the life of my mum but also myself and the whole family. I want to raise awareness of how this illness affects people and families all around the world, because there is a serious lack of understanding. A significant proportion of the little funding available goes towards psychological treatment of the illness, not biomedical treatment. This is like treating a cancer sufferer for how the illness makes them feel rather than giving them chemotherapy or radiotherapy.”

Alex’s Justgiving website has already raised over £4,000, and on the page there are also template letters people can send to their local MP, the chief medical officer, the Secretary of State for Health and the Prime Minister. The local press has been impressed by the cycle ride and the cause, and you can read an article from the Chester Evening Leader here. Thank you Alex, Jody and Nick from us all!

Isle of Man Parish Walk

At the end of June 2007, Barbara Proctor’s daughter, Sheron, took part in the Clerical Medical Parish Walk on the Isle of Man where the family lives. The walk takes place every year starting from the National Sports Centre at 8 am, and covers 85 miles through the 17 island parishes of Andreas, Arbory, Ballaugh, Braddan, Bride, German, Jurby, Lezayre, Lonon, Malew, Marown, Maughold, Michael, Onchan, Patrick, Rushen and Santon.

Sheron’s younger brother had ME as a child many years ago — happily he recovered to a large degree — and the family were founders of the ME support group on the Island. Sheron’s walk raised £755 for ME Research UK, and as Barbara says, “We are very proud of Sheron who managed to train for this walk despite a very busy life. Our family were put through the mill many years ago because of the disbelief surrounding our young son’s illness, and we do still want to see the illness recognised and research to move forward.” Dr Vance Spence, our Chairman, said, “I have know Barbara for many years now, and she has been a beacon of hope for many people. We thank Sheron and Barbara [pictured] most warmly for this wonderful donation.”

Scotland’s Son of Fun

Singer, comedian and all round entertainer Eddie Rose performs his weekly Variety show, ‘A Scottish Night Out’, in Pitlochry during the summer, and each week runs a raffle for a different charity. ME Research UK was that charity in the first week of September 2007, and benefited from the largess of the audience.

Eddie writes all his own material, spending weeks building up a new character. He has a complete costume set for every act, each with immaculate make-up and costumes, including fourteen kilts in a variety of tartans. He also has a range of CDs, the latest of which is a compilation of comedy songs, such as The Loch Ness Monster, singalong medleys and the lovely Irish ballad ‘The Isle of Innisfree’.

Allan’s Coast-to-Coast Walk

At the beginning of July, Allan Mason, from Caterham, Surrey, embarked on a 190-mile walk from Robin Hood’s Bay on the east coast of England, to St Bee’s on the west coast, to raise awareness about ME and money for ME Research UK. Allan’s daughter Sally has suffered from ME for two years, which led Allan to take up the challenge, despite suffering badly himself from arthritis.

After 15 continuous days of walking, Allan finally reached St Bees on 16 July, having raised well over £2,000. As Allan says, “Not surprisingly I had sore feet and plenty of aches and pains in the legs, but all the generous sponsorship from everyone really did focus the mind on plodding on. It was a great experience, despite the many rainy days — trust me to pick the wettest July on record!” Allan’s walk was also covered by a number of local papers, helping to raise awareness of the plight of ME sufferers, including the story in the Surrey Mirror, and more details can be found on his Justgiving page.

Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon

Starting in Fitzwilliam Square and finishing on St Stephen’s Green, Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon took place this year on June 4th.

Some of the 3000 runners from all over Ireland and Europe were running for the Irish ME Trust to generate funds for ME research, and as Declan Carroll explains, “This is the biggest all-women’s event of its kind in the world, and it has grown steadily in numbers since it began in 1983 with its popularity increasing significantly over the last few years. Amazingly, since 1983 some 560,000 women have entered the event — and this year had a record field of over 40,000 on the Bank Holiday Monday.”

A cheque for €2000 was presented by Michael O’Reilly (Chairman of the Irish ME Trust) to Dr Vance Spence (see photo) at the ME Therapy Week in July 2007, an annual event now in its sixth year and which was attended by over 70 ME sufferers and supporters. Read details at the Irish ME Trust’s website.

Michael explains, “We were delighted with the participation of these women who came out to support ME research and hope that we can further our involvement in next year’s event to support this worthy cause.”

A Gift from Bohunt School

Hampshire is home to some great supporters of the drive for biomedical research into ME/CFS, and on 10th July 2007 the pupils at Bohunt School, Liphook gathered for the presentation of a cheque for £1,000 to ME Research UK and £500 for the British Heart Foundation. Sue Waddle, who lives in Hampshire, visited the school to collect the cheque, and the photo shows Sue in the middle with Emily Reekie (who had raised the most money by an individual youngster), and Kyle Meade. The money was raised from various activities, such as sponsored skipping, and the pupils plan to carry on fundraising next year. Indeed, Kyle Meade is planning to do a thirty-mile sponsored bike ride on our behalf through the county in July.

The school first became aware of the medical problem posed by ME, particularly in young people, when Tracy and Roger Tayler’s daughter Suzi — who was at Bohunt School, and whose story can be read here — became severely ill with ME. Our warm thanks go to the school and in particular Mr Barry, to Roger and Tracey Tayler, and Emily and Suzanne for the marvellous contribution to our funds.

Seafront Concert for ME Research

Alan and Yvonne Hume held the latest in their series of biannual gigs on the seafront at Whitley Bay on 9th June 2007, helped by their daughter Ailsa who “looks a bit like a younger, prettier Joan Baez and plays just as well with her dark brown voice which is a delight to listen to”. Alan is an inspiring and enthusiastic guitar tutor, and he invited five of his former students to perform at this event; they were Dave Yarrow, John Jeffrey (supported by his friend Fraser) Gary Brewis, Dennis Dillon and Charlie Simpson. In addition, a friend Mark Conlin was added to the bill.

As Beverley Thompson, one of Alan’s students, explains:

The venue was a crowded private club called the Comrade’s Club, and mine host was a jolly lady with a loud voice full of humour. The musicians were professional and played with the enthusiasm that comes from people who love their music. At the break a very successful raffle was run by David and Mandy Allan which produced £130. Eric Gildea had rigged up the amplifying system, and wherever you were in the crowded room you could hear every nuance of the guitar strings and all the words of the songs. I do feel that a larger venue would also have been a sell-out and would have made even more money for this very good cause.

There was folksy sixties stuff, gospel, humour, slow and sad, fast and funky, and everything in between, including humour. The concert lasted more than three hours, a great night was enjoyed by all, and in total — including matching funding from Northern Rock — £1,090 was raised. Alan and Yvonne are aleady planning another concert for the Autumn.

Summer Garden Party

On Saturday 26th May the family of Alex Milopoulos’s boyfriend kindly held a summer garden party in their back garden in aid of both the 25% ME Group and ME Research UK.

Alex has suffered from ME for nearly nine years with three periods of severe relapse, so the family have seen at first hand how serious this neurological illness is, and they wanted to raise money for support and research.

The lack of rain meant that 45 people attended, enjoying tea and cake in the beautiful, picturesque garden. As Alex said, “We sold plants, bric-a-brac, handmade cards, held a raffle, and there was a human fruit machine (pictured) at which people could try their luck. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we made £500 on the day.”

Much fun was had and Alex was grateful that her health was OK enough to be able to attend (which would have been completely impossible at the same time last year). A big thank you goes to Kathy and Ken for organising the party, the help of family and friends on the day, and to all the people who attended and were so generous.

Norway comes to Perth

The Norwegian ME Association is a long-time Corporate Friend of ME Research UK, so it was a delight to welcome Ellen Piro and Eva Stormorken from the organisation who were attending our New Horizons Biomedical Research Conference and having a tour of Scotland afterwards.

Ellen and Eva (seated, from left to right in the photo) visited Edinburgh, Stirling, Inverness and Loch Ness, before experiencing the crowning moment of the visit — meeting the highland cattle at Scone Palace outside Perth. As Vance said, “Ellen has been a tireless worker for the ME cause over 20 years, and it was great to see her at the conference and at the Gateway in Perth. Fortunately, it was quite easy to find some highland cattle in the area so Eva and Ellen could take some photos back home.” Highland cattle were the earliest registered breed and are affectionately known as ‘shaggy coos’ or ‘hairy coos’ in parts of Scotland. As Ellen and Eva point out, “Norway would also be a fine home for these beasts which, because of their thick shaggy coats, are a good breed for cold Northern climates.”

Walking the Great Glen Way

Catriona and Jim Marshall and a group of friends went walking the Great Glen Way in May 2007, and had a rare old time! The map shows the course of their 73-mile trek across heather, moorland and mountain sides, and it also shows their nephew Andrew before and after contracting ME.

As Catriona says, “Andrew is a fine young man of 29 who was full of zest for life, developed ME two years ago and at present is more or less bedbound. In the longer term, the only answer to this problem is biomedical research — hence our support for ME Research UK through this walk.”

In total, Catriona and Jim raised £3,650 for us, and the photo shows them (on either side of the cheque) making the presentation to Dr Vance Spence, Bob and Betty McRae, and Dr Neil Abbot during an interval at our New Horizons Biomedical Conference at Heriot Watt University on May 25th 2007.

Charity Concert hits the high notes

On Friday 6th April at the beautiful venue of Norton House Farm, Norton-Juxta-Twycross, home of Mr and Mrs Robert Vero, an audience was treated to an eclectic performance of music in a charity concert in aid of ME Research UK. The concert was the brainchild of Rachel Greenfield who also appeared in her professional capacity as concert pianist together with her friend from University, Jane Tierney, a soprano from Glasgow, and Laura Reading, an up-and-coming local soprano from Atherstone. The compere for the evening was the distinguished Neil Jones who provided atmospheric poetry, amusing anecdotes and lively introductions.

The concert began with traditional Scottish songs from the famous bard Robbie Burns and a rousing Loch Lomond, with the audience joining in enthusiastically. Then there were well known songs from the shows with both sopranos on sparkling form: “I Could Have Danced all Night”, “If I Loved You” and “I Feel Pretty”. Rachel performed the dazzling “Chopin Ballade in G minor” and took the audience on a rollercoaster of emotions with a dramatic and virtuosic performance. The evening then took on a jazz theme with Gershwin favourites and “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” from Jane and Laura, followed by a tour de force performance from Jane of the show-stopping “Art is Calling for Me” from The Enchantress by Herbert and Smith. The concert ended with the ethereal duet “Pie Jesu” from Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Requiem, with Laura’s beautiful ringing top notes soaring effortlessly, and a patriotic “Auld Lang Syne” with the audience enthusiastically joining in. The evening was a triumph and an unforgettable experience for all who were present. A total of £1,150 was raised for the charity and Rachel would like to thank everyone for their generous support.

A visit from Friends

Some very welcome guests visited ME Research UK’s offices in the Gateway on 22nd May 2007 — Sue and Nigel Waddle of Invest in ME, who were holidaying in Perthshire before coming as guests to the International Conference on ME/CFS Biomedical Research at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh on Friday 25th. After a buffet lunch — and a photo which shows Sue and Nigel with Betty, Priscilla, Bob and Vance in the Gateway — the tourists were taken on an informal tour of Perth, Scotland’s ancient capital.

Our thanks go to Invest in ME which energised ME Awareness Month 2007 by hosting its 2nd International IiME ME Conference in London on 2nd to 3rd May to open the month, while our International Conference in Edinburgh closed the month.

Presentation of third Vegepa donation at Invest in ME conference

The VegEPA for ME scheme, through which every pot of Vegepa sold raises 50p for research into the illness, now has members across the world. The scheme was initiated and is organized by Lynne Kersh, who cares full-time for her daughter who has had ME for nearly 10 years, and from the proceeds Lynne has just been able to present another donation to our charity. As Lynne says, “I’m absolutely delighted to present our third donation to ME Research UK — this time for an amazing £5,500! This brings the total of money donated in our first year to £8,700 and more is being collected every day towards our next donation. In only our first year, the scheme has gathered some 2,000 members from 20 different countries.”

The Vegepa for ME scheme presented this latest donation at the fascinating two-day International Conference organised by Invest in ME in London on 1st and 2nd May 2007. Lynne explains, “It was enormously uplifting as we listened spellbound to presentations from the world of ME’s most distinguished experts. An amazing amount of knowledge was presented showing the organic nature of ME and it was great to see so many of the leading researchers into ME all in one room, and all pulling in the same direction.”

The photo shows Lynne with Dr Neil Abbot and Dr Vance Spence of ME Research UK (photos courtesy of Regina Clos) and was taken after Vance’s talk on the research process at the conference. As Neil said, “We warmly welcome Lynne’s personal donation from her scheme. I recently wrote a short piece for AfME’s Interaction magazine about the research evidence for EFA supplementation; the key message was that much more needs to be done to research the possible link between symptoms and supplementation — indeed, we would look favourably on applications from established academic researchers to carry out such work.”

Laura’s Marathon

On Sunday 20th May 2007, Laura Duerden did something remarkable: she completed the Great Manchester Run in 1 hour 15 minutes 3 seconds! “In January, I literally couldn't run to the end of the road,” she explains, “so training as been very hard indeed — 4 times a week — but in the end the adrenalin pulled me along on the day!”

Laura’s best friend Amy has been ill with ME for some time, but for the past 18 months she has been exceptionally poorly and has been cared for by her wonderful parents. As Laura lives hundreds of miles away, she doesn’t get to see her anywhere near as much as she would like to, hence the decision to raise money for ME research as a way of doing something to help.

In total, from donations and also from her Justgiving page, Laura has raised over £1,300, which shows, she explains, how much Amy means to so many people.

The photos show Laura (in her custom-made ME Research UK t-shirt showing pictures of Amy and herself), and running partners Helen and Jen (in white vest).

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© 2008 ME Research UK — Charity Number SC036942