Fundraising for M.E.

After the success of my Christmas card fundraiser and after a lot of thought about it's do-ability I have decided to continue to sell my handmade cards and fundraise for two M.E. charities: Smile for M.E. and Action for M.E. (who I fundraised for at Christmas).

I had to think a lot about whether I should go ahead with the project and the way I done it this time I've set it up to be more M.E. friendly as how I did my Christmas fundraiser really crashed me. I also had to factor in my health and the fact that *hopefully* at some point I will be moving. However I think the way I've worked it I can alway make a notice to say that I'm taking a break for whatever reason.

I also did a lot of research and thinking into charities but deep down I felt that I wanted to support M.E. charities - everyone has their own charity or charitable area that is meaningful to them for whatever reason and though I do have other illnesses I feel a closeness to want to support the work of M.E. charities. This is partly because M.E. is probably the illness that affects me the most; I also know how overlooked M.E. is and how little understanding of M.E. there is as well as how little funding M.E. research and just M.E. in general gets.

Smile for M.E.

Smile for M.E. is a small UK charity and they send out 'Smile Parcels' to people with M.E. as well as care givers to people with M.E. They also hold special events such as for Carers Week and 'Merryn's Smiles' - special Smile Parcels to people with Severe M.E. in memory of Merry Crofts who sadly passed away from the illness. Smile for M.E. was started in response and in recognition of the isolation and loneliness people with M.E. often experience. You can find out more by visiting their website or checking out their Instagram.

I chose to support Smile for M.E. as it's a very small M.E. charity and I love the idea behind what they do because M.E. is such an isolating and lonely illness as especailly for some like myself with Severe M.E. I'm cut-off from the outside world as I'm mostly housebound. So when I was nominated as received a personified Smile of a few gifts to me it reminded me that I wasn't forgotten about and that I was loved and cared about. I'd like to help the charity by fundraising for them so they can buy gifts to include in Smiles and bring the same feeling to other with M.E. or those that care for people with M.E.

Action for M.E.

Action for M.E. is another UK charity that takes action to raise awareness of M.E. and to take on the ignorance, injustice and neglect faced by people with M.E. They also provide targeted information, support to health care services as well as providing advocacy work to people of all ages with M.E. The charity also works closely with professionals and policymakers to improve for people with M.E. access to appropriate care and and support. Action for M.E. also collaborates with scientists and clinicians to help more research forwards. For example the DecodeME DNA database study.

In the past I've collaborated with the charity to help raise awareness through videos and articles on their magazine.

The reason why I wanted to continue fundraising for Action for M.E. is because of the support they offer to people like myself with M.E. The charity provides a wealth of information and resource to people with M.E. of all ages, care givers, the public and professionals. They offer support and advocacy such as their 'Listen to M.E.' helpline - but it's open hours are limited and I hope that more funding will extend this to help reach more people with M.E. The charity also supports children and young people with M.E. Also at Christmas they run a project called 'Christmas Angels' which means a lot to me and like with the helpine I hope that fundraising will help to keep this project running.

Where to by cards?

You can buy cards through my shop Instagram account - there's an explainer on there about the project and how I've organised my cards and how they can be purchased.