Giving Tuesday - ME/CFS Organizations to Support

Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After the flurry of spending on gifts yesterday for Cyber Monday (hopefully, you are donating WHILE you shop, too!), now it is time to turn our attention to less material things for Giving Tuesday, a day devoted to donating to and supporting charities.

For an extra gift to yourself, consider donating to an organization that supports ME/CFS patients and/or research. There has never been a better time - or more need for funding - for ME/CFS research. There have been so many exciting breakthroughs in the last few years!

Here is a list of ME/CFS organizations to consider donating to today - and all year-round:

• Solve ME/CFS Initiative - one of the leading research funding organizations in the world (they have funded a lot of important research over more than two decades) and creator of the ME/CFS BioBank and Patient Registry, and if you donate TODAY, your gift could help them get a $50,000 gift from an anonymous donor! I just made my donation. Here's more info on the organization and the donation page. While you're at it, sign up to participate in the BioBank and Patient Registry to help move research forward in another way.
• Open Medicine Foundation - and their End ME/CFS Project, including a study focused on the severely ill - a top-notch research organization with some of the top ME/CFS doctors in the world. More information on the organization and the donation page.
• Simarron Research - an organization involved in a wide variety of ME/CFS research projects, including the ground-breaking immune study first published earlier this year from Columbia (the second half of that is still ongoing). More information on the organization and the donation page.
• The Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease - though we haven't heard a lot from this organization since their XMRV theory was disproven (that's the way science works - new theories pop up and they are investigated and often discarded in order to move forward), they still have a number of important research projects in progress. More information on the organization and to donate, click on the blue Donate button.
• Health Rising - this is not actually a charity, but Cort Johnson, an ME/CFS patient himself, works tirelessly to seek out the latest research and information on ME/CFS and pass that along to other patients. I don't know how he manages all that he does, but I am grateful! His website ("Finding answers for ME/CFS and FM") is one of the first places I go for information, and he does accept donations (Donate button on his homepage) to help him continue his important work.
• Invest in ME (UK) - the major UK organization for ME/CFS, created by patients and parents of children with ME and focused on funding biomedical research, education, and lobbying. More information on the organization and the donation page.
• The 25%ME Group - a UK organization that provides services to those who are most severely affected by ME. More information on the organization and the fundraising page, which includes a Donate button and information on other ways to help.
• Tymes Trust - "the longest established national UK service for children and young people with ME and their families."  They work with doctors, teachers, and other specialists to support children with ME. More information on the organization and the donation page.
• ME/CFS Australia (SA) - provides services and information, including support groups, an information line, and youth support, to ME/CFS patients in Australia. More information on the organization and the donation page.
• Emerge Australia - this organization is mainly an advocacy group that "advocates for, educates about, and provides information on" ME/CFS in Australia. More information on the organization and the donation page. 

Wow, there are so many great organizations working tirelessly to help ME/CFS patients! And I'm sure I missed some - if so, please tell us in the comments section.

Take a moment to choose one of these worthy organizations to donate to - if each ME/CFS patient only gave $5 to an organization, we'd have millions more dollars for research and other services!

And if you don't get to it on Giving Tuesday (December 1), I'm sure any of these organizations would appreciate your donation any day of the year.