Record donations from The Vegepa for ME Scheme

The Vegepa for ME Scheme, through which every box of Vegepa or Echiomega sold raises money for research into the illness, now has members across the world. The scheme was initiated and is organised by Lynne Kersh, who has cared full-time for her daughter, a long-term ME patient, and from the proceeds Lynne has just been able to present another donation to our charity.

As Lynne says, “I’m absolutely delighted that during the life of the scheme we have been able to donate £35,092.50to ME Research UK. More is being collected every day towards our next donation — and the scheme now has 5070 members in 20 different countries.”

From the first donation of £1,200 in September 2006, the scheme has gone from strength to strength, climbing progressively over the three years to touch £25K at the start of this year (as the chart above shows), and continuing upwards to reach the present impressive total.

The photo shows Lynne presenting a cheque to Dr Neil Abbot and Dr Vance Spence of ME Research UK after one of Vance’s talks on Biomedical Aspects of ME/CFS.

Lynne explains, “It is always enormously uplifting to hear a presentation from the world of ME’s most distinguished experts, and great to see research moving forward.”

Dr Spence, Chairman of ME Research UK, said, “We warmly welcome Lynne’s personal donation from her scheme — £29,000 is an amazing achievement. The role of the dietary therapies, including EFA supplementation, in bringing about symptomatic relief or resolution is an unexplored area of science, and we recognise that much more needs to be done to research the possible link between symptoms and supplementation — indeed, we would look favourably on applications from established academic researchers to carry out such work. And thanks to Lynne’s donation, and others like it, we have been able to action projects, like the brain imaging study at University of London, and the brain, liver and muscle project at the University of Newcastle, so we are extremely grateful to Lynne and all her members across the world.”