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Our 40 x £1k Fundraisers Challenge

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40 x £1k Fundraisers Challenge for Invest in ME Research

Our 40 x £1k Fundraisers Challenge aims to raise £40,000 to reach the milestone of £1,000,000 raised and pledged for Invest in ME Research for the charity’s Centre of Excellence biomedical research programme and medical education projects for ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis).

Any individual, group, team, company, is welcome to join in.

There is no pressure at all to reach your fundraising target.

Simply contact us with the link to your fundraising page or event and we’ll add it to our 40 x £1k Fundraisers grid and share on social media.

Let’s Do It for ME is run by patients supporting Invest in ME Research and helping to crowdfund the charity’s Centre of Excellence for ME projects.

Invest in ME Research can provide fundraising aids such as their charity collection boxes, wristbands, T-shirts, posters, banners, as well as leaflets and other awareness or informational materials.

We’ve set up our own £1k target fundraising page on JustGiving and a team page which you’re welcome to join.

Wonderful.org closed end of March, so we’ve transferred our fundraising page Remembering Anne Örtegren to JustGiving.

Here are the details if you wish to send your donation to Invest in ME Research by cheque or bank transfer.

UK Bank Transfer
Bank: Lloyds TSB Heartsease
Sorting code: 77-66-53
Account number: 22439568

Bank Transfer from outside UK
IBAN: GB63 LOYD 77665322439568
BIC/SWIFT: LOYDGB21E05

Cheque
Send cheques payable to ‘Invest in ME Research’ to:
Invest in ME Research
PO Box 561,
Eastleigh,
Hampshire,
SO50 0GQ
(UK tax payers can add Gift Aid)

Let’s Do It for ME is run by patients supporting Invest in ME Research and fundraising for the charity’s Centre of Excellence for ME projects.

Our 40 x £1k Fundraisers Challenge

New Total £960,000

New Research Initiative in Memory of Anne Örtegren

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The PhD studentship established in memory of Anne Örtegren has started two years to the day since her passing. This joint UK-Swedish studentship is funded by Invest in ME Research and University of East Anglia.

Anne Örtegren was an outstanding advocate for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a great friend to Invest in ME Research, and a generous supporter of the Let’s Do It for ME fundraising for the charity’s UK/European Centre of Excellence programme of biomedical research and medical education.

Anne’s suffering from this dreadful disease became unbearable, and she had arranged to end her life in January 2018.

They had never met in person, but Anne had corresponded with Invest in ME since 2007, the year after they had formed as a charity.

Anne was not just a good friend of the charity, she was an inspiration and a reason to continue to work hard to get high-quality biomedical research into ME and up-to-date education in healthcare and the disease. Anne was also a vital link in helping Invest in ME Research continue working to build international collaboration, especially in her native Sweden.

The new PhD project links with the research of Professor Jonas Bergquist, continuing long-standing collaboration between Norwich and Uppsala University, and would have also involved the late Professor Jonas Blomberg, who sadly passed away in 2019.

The Principal Investigators for this PhD project are Professor Simon Carding, Group Leader, Quadram Institute Bioscience, and Dr. Penny Powell, Senior Lecturer in Cell and Molecular Virology and FMH Associate Dean PGR, Norwich Medical School, UEA.

This PhD project will augment the forthcoming UK FMT clinical trial. The aim of the project is to determine the impact faecal microbiota transplanation has on the intestinal virome and on host viral immune responses in parallel with clinical outcomes in ME patients. Treatment outcomes will be assessed clinically through cognitive function and activity monitoring tests.

The project will involve microbiome and virome profiling and functionality, and pathogen discovery through bioinformatics analysis. In addition, in Uppsala, patient samples will be used for metabolomic analysis and assessing the function of the transplanted microbiota.

This joint project is another way for Invest in ME Research to honour Anne’s memory and her work. The inaugural Anne Örtegren Memorial Lecture at the charity’s international biomedical research conference in 2018 was given by Professor Theoharis C. Theoharides on the topic of Mast Cells and Professor Jonas Blomberg gave a tribute to Anne. In 2019, the subject of the Anne Örtegren Memorial Lecture was Pain and was presented by Professor Stuart Bevan.

The results of Anne’s tireless efforts are also reflected in the work of Invest in ME Research as they continue to facilitate collaborations between researchers in different countries and also clinicians by initiating the European ME Clinicians Council (EMECC).

To mark the start of the new PhD project, Team Let’s Do It for ME has created a fundraising page Remembering Anne Örtegren for donations to the next phase of the UK/European Centre of Excellence projects.

This is the last week for you to provide online input about the research for the upcoming Public Engagement Meeting next month.

Thank you everyone for remembering Anne Örtegren.

Thank you for supporting Invest in ME Research.

LINKS

Joint UK-Sweden PhD Project
UK FMT Trial for ME
2019 Conference Report
Anne Örtegren Memorial Lecture May 2019
Professor Jonas Blomberg February 2019
Anne Örtegren – A Year On January 2019
2018 Conference Report
Anne Örtegren Memorial Lecture May 2018
Farewell to a Friend January 2018
Farewell – A Last Post from Anne Örtegren

New Total £960,000!

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Invest in ME Research announced in their Christmas and New Year Funding Appeal that £960,000 has been raised and pledged to support the charity’s Centre of Excellence for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis projects.

The Let’s Do It for ME campaign is run by severely ill patients supporting the charity’s Centre of Excellence programme of biomedical research and medical education projects. Our original crowdfunding goal of £100,000 enabled this work to get underway in 2013 (patient samples for the lab work obtained since 2014) and we would love to reach £1,000,000!

So to start off the new year, we have created a grid with 40 vacant slots with a funding target of £1,000 each and invite you to contact us if you’d like to aim to raise £1,000 whether as an individual or group, private or business. Read more on the page for Our 40 x £1k Fundraisers Challenge.

Many thanks to everyone helping Invest in ME Research to achieve their goals relating to maintaining a programme of high quality biomedical reseach with international collaboration focused on establishing diagnostic tests and medical treatments for this disease.

The charity wrote in December,

“To our supporters we owe great thanks – you helped create something that was thought unachievable. A sustainable Centre of Excellence for ME is now harnessing the benefits of a strategy of collaborative international biomedical research in modern facilities with world-class researchers.”

With very best wishes to you for 2020 and the new decade ahead and grateful thanks for supporting Invest in ME Research.

In case you missed it, your input is needed to inform the agenda for an upcoming public engagement meeting at Quadram Institute.

Our 40 x £1k Fundraisers Challenge

PRESS RELEASE: £500k Pledged by IiMER!

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Invest in ME Research has announced a pledge by the charity of £500,000 to the biomedical ME research underway at Norwich Research Park.

As far as we know, this is the largest single pledge for biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis ever made by a charity in UK!

IiMER Press Release
Quadram Institute News

The pledge covers joint funding of a PhD position in partnership with University of East Anglia and over 70% of the required funding for a clinical trial of Faecal Microbiota Transplantation being performed alongside other high-quality biomedical research at Quadram Institute.

Invest in ME Research pledged £435,000 towards the FMT trial earlier this year, so this new pledge represents an increase, thanks to the efforts of the charity and their supporters, including patients, carers, parents, friends and families affected by this disease. On their page describing the recent Centre of Excellence projects, IiMER write,

“The efforts of our supporters are exemplified in the Let’s Do It For ME campaign – started by three severely affected patients from their homes. They have enlisted friends and families to join with Invest in ME Research to create a grassroots movement to fund biomedical research into the disease, and thereby compensating for the meagre offical funding that has been given to research into ME over the years.

Invest in ME Research will now have funded or part funded five PhDs performing research into ME and working in partnership with researchers to initiate a foundation of high-quality research in one of the largest and most prestigious research parks in Europe.” Read more: investinme.org/pr01-Dec19.shtml

The press release is announced on Day 2 of the charity’s Advent Calendar.

Together we have helped raise and pledge over £900,000 for Invest in ME Research since the Let’s Do It for ME campaign launched in support of the charity’s plan to establish a UK/European Centre of Excellence for ME.

This includes a hugely generous pledge to the charity from The Hendrie Foundation towards a clinical treatment trial and their substantial donation to the B-cell ME research performed at UCL. We are enormously grateful to the foundation and to everyone supporting the development of the Centre of Excellence for ME and the ongoing research there.

Thank you all so much for supporting Invest in ME Research!

Let’s keep doing it for ME!

Donate to
Invest in ME Research

Donate/Share Let’s Do It for ME’s
fundraising for the FMT trial

Christmas Contests, Fundraising, Shopping

Let’s Win £1,000 Again!

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Please nominate Invest in ME Research (charity number 1153730)

Earlier this year, your nominations won Invest in ME Research a wonderful £1,000 award in specialist insurer Ecclesiastical’s #MovementForGood. Here is our chance to do it again thanks to the company’s #12Days of Giving.

Nominations are open now and remain open until midnight before the day of each draw. You need only nominate once and your nomination carries over to the next day if the charity does not win.

Draws will take place each weekday from 5 – 20 December 2019. 

Winners will be drawn at random and the more nominations Invest in ME Research receives the greater the chance of them winning, so please spread the word and encourage your friends, family, contacts, to nominate too!

Click here and scroll the page for the nomination form.

Charity number: 1153730

Charity name: Invest in ME Research

Charity type: Health

Mark Hews, Group CEO of Ecclesiastical, said: “As a company whose purpose is to contribute to the greater good of society, charitable giving is at the heart of our business. Our annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign will help charities change lives for the better and we know that for many charities, £1,000 can make a real difference. We’re encouraging everyone to nominate a cause close to their hearts this Christmas to be in for a chance to win a festive financial boost.”

Thank you for this opportunity Ecclesiastical and thank you everyone nominating Invest in ME Research!

About Invest in ME Research

The charity believes that biomedical research into ME is crucial in order to make progress in treating this disease. We also believe that education of healthcare staff, the media, government departments, patient groups and patients is to be a priority.

The charity’s objectives are to initiate, maintain and augment a strategy of high-quality biomedical research into ME, to provide education about ME, and to raise awareness of the effects of the disease on patients and families.

We are a small charity but with supporters who have big hearts – and a determination to get the best possible research to be carried out to find the cause of myalgic encephalomyelitis and develop treatments.

We have links nationwide and also internationally. Read more…