ME Research UK is grateful once more to be chosen as one of the featured charities for 2021’s Walk for ME scheme. Covid-19 restrictions permitting and adhering to all social distancing and health advice, the initiative is most popular around ME Awareness Week.
Now in its ninth consecutive year, the scheme has encouraged supporters to walk, run, swim and ride – in places as diverse as Ireland, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and the USA, as well as here in the UK – for two ME biomedical research-focused charities. Since its inception in 2013, Walk for ME has raised well over £160,000 for charity. Wherever you are, we hope you will become involved this year.
The aim of Walk for ME is to get as many people as possible – especially the family and friends of those affected by ME – to do a sponsored walk, run, swim or ride of whatever length they feel comfortable with.
There is no minimum distance, no targets, and, although it runs principally through ME Awareness Week (2nd week in May), no set dates. You choose when you wish to walk, the distance, the location and the charity to support. No matter what you do step-by-step, you will be supporting a great cause and also raising awareness with every stride.
It is hoped that as many friends and loved ones as possible will do a sponsored walk or other sponsored event during ME Awareness Week, although you can also do a walk, run, swim or ride at any other time if you prefer.
You are a few steps away from taking part:
- Set up a fundraising page. JustGiving takes you through each simple stage.
- Choose ME Research UK as your charity.
- Click on ‘personal challenge’ and follow the instructions.
- Click on ‘create your page’ and personalise it. By adding a photo and saying why and for whom you are walking, you are more likely to get donations.
- Go to the ‘Walk for ME 2021’ team page, scroll down and click on ‘Join the team’, and select your fundraising page to add it to the team.
- If you don’t want to set up a separate page, there’s also a general fundraising page.
Make contact with us. We are here to help you at every stage and may be able to provide a free t-shirt.
We also have a sponsorship form that you can download and print off.
As the organisers say, “The whole idea is that the friend or family member is doing something that their loved one would love to be able to do but can’t.“
