Christmas Challenge 2015
Invest in ME Selected for the Big Give Christmas Challenge 2015
Invest in ME are pleased to announce that one of the charity's projects entered for The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2015 has been accepted.
Our project to fund two more intercalating medical students from UEA Medical School to participate in ME related research has been accepted for the Big Give Christmas Challenge [1].
As explained in our proposal
The Need
Medical students often learn very little about the disease myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). What they do learn is out-of-date and based on a page that is based on flawed research. This means that students leave medical training ill-prepared for understanding or treating ME.
By participating in the actual biomedical research they not only learn far more about the disease but are also given the potential to find treatment or cause. This helps the student, the university and, ultimately, patient .
The Solution
The students will be attached to one of the projects being funded by the charity. They will be supervised by professors involved in the research and learn about the disease as well as perform vital roles in the research itself. This may also involve seeing patients.
By intercalating in their fourth year they gain valuable insights into the disease as well as returning to their studies with more confidence and ability to educate other students about ME.
We have had great success with our two current intercalating fourth year medical students Navena Navaneetharaja and Bharat Harbham.
Navena spent over three months at Cornell University in New York with Professor Maureen Hanson and Bharat has been working under the guidance of Professor Angela Vincent in Oxford.
Navena and Bharat have been of great help to the IiME funded PhD student Daniel Vipond and all this work underpins the next phases of our continuing project to establish a Centre of Excellence for ME and a strategic range of biomedical research into this disease.
We would like to fund two more intercalating medical students using the Big Give Christmas Challenge campaign.
Phase I - THE PLEDGE PHASE (EARLY SEPTEMBER – 16TH OCTOBER)
The first phase of the Big Give Christmas Challenge involves collecting pledges.
To do this the charity will have to accept pledges which will be honoured in January 2016.
We need to collect £2500 in pledges (minimum £100 each pledge, no maximum) by October 16th.
Pledges will be collected after the challenge has finished in December.
Please note that pledgers are not allowed to donate online to the charity during the Christmas Challenge December phase.
Pledges can be made via this link - http://new.thebiggive.org.uk/pledge/investinme
This form does not ask for payment details, as pledges are paid after the end of the December Challenge Phase and can be paid directly to IiME.
Phase II - DECEMBER CHALLENGE PHASE - The release of the match funding
The Christmas Challenge phase will begin at midday (12pm) on Friday 4th December. During this phase, online donations will be doubled by the ‘matching pot’ - a combination of Champion funds and your pledges. The Champion funds will be released in two tranches during Christmas Challenge Phase.
The donations end on 14th December.
Summary of Key Dates
The key dates you need to mark in your diaries are:
16th October – Deadline to secure pledges
4th December (Midday) – Campaign opens + first tranche of match funding released
5th December (Midday) – Second tranche of match funding released
14th December – Campaign closes
Further details can be supplied from Invest in ME.
References:
1 Invest in ME Big Give Pledge
2 IiME Intercalating Medical Students Project
3 Next Generation Students at the IIMEC10 Conference
