#Run4ME in Canada

Action CIND is hosting a 5K/1K run/walk and silent auction on Sat Sept 14th. Goal is to raise funds for ME research. Details, registration and donations can be made at Actioncind.crowdchange.co

 

That is because our board has not been able to select the project to receive the money yet due to a number of factors. We are waiting on a number of external factors that we have no control over. (Eg potential projects we know about but they are waiting on external approvals). Also with this being our first attempt at a run, it was a challenge to predict what amount we might raise. The amount we raise can impact the decision on the most effective place to invest.

When we started the run idea there wasn’t much available in Canada and just recently we now have options such as supporting Canada’s new ME research network or OMF Canada as they finally announced they are open for business. We’ve waited a long time to see these announcements. We hoped they would arrive but we couldn’t pick them when they didn’t exist yet in case they didn’t materialize. We would have had a real mess if that occurred.

Now with two major initiatives available, there may be other researchers appear on the scene now.

Next, we have to see how much we can raise. We’re hoping more participants and donors will sign up plus we have a lot of good prizes for the silent auction to sell. There’s still 2 weeks - anything could happen and hopefully a nice large donation will come our way. Having a large amount to invest in ME research would be a nice problem to resolve.

If you have suggestions for where we should consider investing the proceeds, please email Alison Rae (CEO) at info@actioncind.org.

As we are a Canadian charity, the funds must go to a qualified donee as defined by the CRA and remain in Canada. The research has to be for ME and biological based. It must be a sound research project with all the traditional aspects of a good project. We need to do our due diligence and then make our selection.

A lot of people having been working very hard for many months behind the scenes to get ME research going in Canada and things are starting to happen. It’s exciting times and changes happening every few weeks. We’ve got unprecedented and history making support from the federal Minister of Health, not once, but at least 5 times in the past few months. We got $1.4 million from CIHR which is huge compared to previous funding. We want to be sure our investment is going to help this movement grow and accomplish meaningful research as much as possible. Our organization is committed to advancing research in Canada. We look forward to being on Dr Moreau’s team.

If anyone can help with a donation, we would greatly appreciate the support. Even using something like igive.com when you shop online is helpful for our organization and doesn’t cost you anything if finances are tight.

 

An update for you. The run was held on the 14th and was very successful. Even the weather was perfect.

The funds are still coming in but we’ve grossed over $10,000.

The fundraiser at website actioncind.crowdchange.co is still open for donations if anyone is able to help nudge us up a bit.

Given I have ME plus FM and MCS, I need a bit of recovery time then we’ll figure out where is the best place to invest.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to contact me at info@actioncind.org.

Thanks

 

This looks a really good development For Canada. It raised a lot of money , well done. In the uk I believe there’s something called walk for ME every year which raises quite a lot.

 

I think things are changing in Canada. Awareness is growing and now with a 5yr grant to build a national research network necessary structures are being developed. We need much more than we raised but it’s a good start. I think we should be hopeful given recent events.

I’m also noticing that groups and organizations are starting to work together on collaborative efforts. I know our lead researcher Dr Alain Moreau is keen to see this happen and is leading by example by reaching out to other researchers especially the Ron Davis team and OMF plus others and to patients.

We need to stop working in silos and combine efforts and learn from each other so solutions are found as quickly as possible. We have too many patients suffering and some for many years. We all want our lives back.

 

That's a very nice number, congrats!

Could you say some more about how you were able to raise such a large amount? Where there many runners who each brought sponsors or did you succeed in attracting some larger sponsors?

Many thanks in advance,

 

Thank you. We had a combination of things. Each participant paid an entry fee and we had I think close to 60 participants. (We wanted it around 50 for the first year). We asked each participant to get sponsors. Some did and some didn’t. We had one corporate sponsor that helped get things goings. We sold some T-shirt’s and held a silent auction with some good items from many corporate donors. Plus we had a number of donors.

You can get an idea from website actioncind.crowdchange.co. Select the entry there and then scroll down past the event details to see Top Teams etc.

We are planning to have a run again next year. We hope to announce the date soon. We’ll have a whole year to plan for it so we’re hopeful it will go well too.