3 months to go

A (rather slow) one woman marketing campaign!

My annual fundraiser Blue Sunday is 3 months away but I have already made a huge dent in the work that needs doing between now and then.

This all started back in 2013. I had wanted to mark M.E. Awareness week in some way but there wasn’t anything accessible that I could join in with. I couldn’t do a sponsored walk (or wheel in my wheelchair as I was rarely well enough to sit in it). A sponsored silence was pointless as I had often lost the ability to speak, so weak was my body that it didn’t have the strength to form audible words. I didn’t want to just donate to someone else’s fundraiser; I wanted so desperately to feel a part of something again after missing out on so much of ‘normal life’ because of my new, ever-present symptoms and the restrictions they brought to my life.

And so, with a heap of help from my family, the Tea Party For M.E. was born and it’s now held every year on the Sunday after M.E. Awareness Day (which is the 12th May each year). This year it falls on 14th May.

Each year I invite you to hold a Tea Party For M.E. in whatever way works for you. People all over the world join in and together we have raised an astounding £70,000 for M.E charities across the world.

This year will be the same as every other year – as simple and straightforward as possible, sharing photos online of your little tea party set-up so you can feel a part of something even if you’re unable to be with people in-person.

Those who can, donate the price they’d pay for tea and cake (as someone who hasn’t been in a café in years, I’m told this is about £3-5) to an M.E. charity of their choice. I’m working my way through contacting the 11 charities we fundraised for last year and have a couple of extras to add to this year’s list.

Slowly but surely all the information you need is being uploaded and updated to my website and everything is on track to be finished in good time to rest up before May.

Each year Blue Sunday grows and grows; reaching more people affected by this wretched illness. And the promise of cake remains an apparently exceptional way of engaging those around us in our cause!