10 Years of the 25% Group

Cause for Celebration!

 

I cannot believe we are now in our tenth year of operation. When I look back on the early days, we had a handful of members and an eight-page newsletter.

Now we have well over 800 members,  a 36-40 page newsletter, many other member-led services, and just look at the size of the full contact list!

What better way to celebrate than to receive a large grant from the Big Lottery Fund—it could not have come at a better time.

 

Over the last ten years, the group has tirelessly campaigned for recognition and awareness of this illness—something that still forms a big part of our operations today. I sometimes think I have spent so much time outside No 10 Downing Street (sitting in my wheelchair holding a banner, armed with petitions and evidence of the neglect and mistreatment of ME sufferers) that I was nearly given a policeman’s uniform!

 

I believe things have improved slightly, although we still have a long way to go and we will continue to fight and campaign on behalf of sufferers for as long as it takes.

 

Have your say about your group!  

In continuing the theme of our 10 Year Celebration, we would like to hear your comments about how the 25% ME GROUP has made a difference to your life. How the support and services offered by the Group have helped you. We would love to hear about your thoughts and these will be highlighted in the December Newsletter.

 

*News about our  2nd AGM - *

 

Also celebrating 10 Years

By way of a strange coincidence, it is also the tenth year of operation for BRAME. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tanya and Christine for all their hard work and tireless campaign efforts over the last ten years on behalf of ME sufferers. This is one Group who has stood up for sufferers and spoken the truth about this disease, without compromising the reality of what is happening to patients. Thank you BRAME

 

New Sections in the Newsletter

You may notice some new pages in this issue i.e. Advocacy Advice, MCS page and the Humour section. We hope you all enjoy and find them helpful.

Simon Lawrence—Chairman

 

Progress Report

Lottery Success

 

As many of you will already know, our bid to the Big Lottery Fund was successful!!

 

The award of £144,000 for three years has allowed us to set up new office premises and commence our much-needed advocacy service.

 

Our Advocacy Worker, Peter McLean, started work with the group at the beginning of March and already the new service has been much-utilised by members. Please see our new section in the Newsletter (entitled Quarterly Advocacy Section on pages 10-13) to find out some very handy tips on how to fill in a DLA application and information regarding appeals.

 

We are sure the new service will make a big difference (in a very practical way) to the lives of ME sufferers and please feel free to contact us if you would like more information regarding this service.

 

The staff and, I’m sure all of you, are also really pleased with this award in that it is a really positive outcome to ten years of extremely hard work and dedication by Simon whilst he ran the organisation from his own home. We are pleased that he has his own home back at last!!

 

The new office is now fully functional and we celebrated the new venture by hosting an official launch of the project. The project was officially opened by Alex Fergusson MSP and Convenor of the Cross Party Group on ME.  The day was well attended and the local press came along to photograph the event. We have also placed some photographs of the day on page 8 for you to have a look at.

 

We hope you enjoy the photos and get some flavour of the open day from them! (If you have internet access and would like to view more information about the open day, just click the link button on the group  website’s homepage.)

 

Linda Conner

Development/Admin Worker