Invest in ME (IiME) was set up with the objectives of making a change in how ME is perceived and treated in the media, by health departments and by healthcare professionals. We aimed to do this by concentrating our efforts on - funding for biomedical research, education and lobbying.

Since its inception Invest in ME has especially campaigned for biomedical research into ME.

The charity has enjoyed support from a small, but dedicated and wonderful team of  supporters and we have all worked together to raise awareness of ME and try to make a difference. With the Let’s do it for ME campaign we have together managed to build an impressive momentum to allow patients and researchers to work together and move toward building a strategy of biomedical research into ME.

We are, together with wonderful supporters, turning this urgent requirement into reality.

Thanks to the great ideas, efforts and commitment of so many great people -

now, as at May 2013, the research fund for biomedical research into ME had reached £92,000.

There have been people  walking for ME, running for ME,  doing sleep-overs, making Christmas cards, making calendars (even naked calendars ), donation-matching, avoiding internet/facebook, remaining silent, sponsored weight loss events, supermarket collections, craft-making, climbs, swims, cycling, ladies nights, dog sitting, birthday parties, coffee mornings, give-a-pound donations, remembering etc., etc. - and soon will be swimming with sharks, shaving heads and even jumping out of perfectly serviceable aircraft or crossing the arctic.

And these events have been matched by donations from people from all walks of life - supporting as best they can, and often supporting more than they ought to due to financial or health constraints, or both.

And children have also been heavily involved in this - for their friends, their sisters or brothers, or for their parents - a truly inspiring sight.

And the BIG Cause is not confined to the UK - it is an international cause and we have donations from around the world.

Small charity, BIG Cause

patient power

can do attitude

crowdfunding biomedical research into ME

doing what can be done and dreaming of what ought to be done

LDIFME is a patient-driven campaign to raise awareness and vital funds for the  proposal for an examination and research facility that can lead to a centre of excellence for translational biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). The campaign is run by patients and carers who want the findings of high quality research to result in the development of appropriate treatments and who will not give up that hope for the future, despite the huge personal cost to their health that a lot of the campaigning has caused. The LDIFME campaign shows the true nature of people with ME and their families - looking to make progress and regain their health, using forward thinking and a can-do approach to raising awareness and making ME a mainstream illness.

All of these wonderful gestures, supreme efforts, and overwhelming generosity are a testament to positive, forward thinking individuals.

Thanks to patients and supporters the UK will now be able to claim a promising project to add to the research base - and a foundation for future research.

The campaign by ME patients and their families may not receive much publicity but, as we have said before, actions speak louder than awards.

We hope to begin the first biomedical research project this year and to follow it with other projects.