March 2022
Hello and welcome to March’s newsletter. Hope you have had the best month possible.
Nominations are still openNominations for Merryn’s Smile Day 2022 are open until 5th April. You can nominate a Severe ME sufferer for a special Smile by completing our nomination form. Repeat nominations are considered. To find out more about Merryn and Merryn’s Smile Day check out smileforme.org.uk/merrynsmileday. |
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Smiles
15 Smiles were sent to both ME sufferers and carers of all ages this month. The items included in our Smiles change all the time as we personalise them to each person’s likes and interests. Some of the items included this month were candles, pamper products, books, gift vouchers, animal ornaments, fairy lights, mugs, hot chocolate, teas, chocolates and a pottery making set.
“Came home from a long cold day at work to find a surprise parcel from Smile For ME full of goodies Such a lovely idea, it really made my day”
“Thanks to @smileforme for this surprise package of clay craft items and a Batman fidget spinner I received in the post this week. My fiancée @quitecrumbly nominated me secretly back in January to this great organisation who bring smiles to those living with M.E. and those- like me- who care for someone with this debilitating illness. Being a carer alongside my ADHD and being at Uni is hard, I won’t sugar coat it. But caring for the person I love is really important to me. Remembering medications, helping her get around and to appointments, helping her up the stairs, washing her hair at times, advocating for her when she’s really ill, it’s all part of it. Living a life with moderate to severe M.E./CFS is so misunderstood and the illness is so medically neglected which can be the hardest part of it all. I just want my partner to be better and well and in the meantime for greater understanding of this underfunded and underresearched disease. This package really did make my day though and I’m looking forward to creating something cool.”
“Thank you so much to Smile For ME charity for sending me such a beautiful, surprise care package. It really made my day I love the beautiful dog and cat wire sculpture and the Galaxy chocolate is my favourite Thank you to my bestie Lorna too for nominating me”
“I received the nicest surprise! My beaut Ali Head nominated me to receive this personalised little care package from Smile For ME – after also just finding out my endometriosis has already grown back after 6 months this couldn’t have come at a better time. I had heard of Smile for ME before but never looked into them, I’ll definitely be supporting them as a charity. As much as we need serious biomedical research into ME, this charity is also vital in itself for sufferers well-being too. Being ill for years on end with zero treatment and lack of support is very isolating to say the least. If you know of an ME sufferer or a carer who could do with a little lift, take a look at Smile for ME.”
“Look what was waiting for me on Friday…such a lovely surprise curtesy of Smile for M.E, a small charity that sends out ‘smiles’ for people affected by M.E and their careers. Thanks for the nomination Kayleigh”
“Thank you so much @smileforme !! This parcel definitely made my day and I have started colouring already. This is such a lovely idea”
Smile of the month
What’s made you smile this month? Each month we ask this question on social media and we love hearing the responses. We hope by sharing some of your smiles it can help others to find a smile too. 
Share a story
Share a story is a segment where we share a story from someone affected by ME to help raise awareness and remind others they are not alone. This month’s share a story is by Lizzy Horn. Thank you Lizzy for sharing your experience of ME with the hopes it encompasses.
Hope.
Hope is a strange and glorious thing, and it can do much good. But it can be painful too.
Sometimes we are unrealistically hopeful. Sometimes we hope for the wrong things.
I have experienced this many times throughout my illness.
When I was 14 I got a severe gastric flu virus, and was incredibly poorly for a month. I was exhausted afterwards, and went on a slow phased return to school.
I got a bit better over a few summer months, and thought that would be the end of it, but when I went back full time in autumn, I crashed, hard.
I never made it back to school again, and that was the start of hope being painful. Every term I would long to go back, every term I would hope that by the next term I’d be well enough, and it never happened.
It felt crushing every time.
I was diagnosed with M.E, and told by medics and others around me, that most young people get better in 2-3years.
I hoped that would be me. I was adamant that it would be me.
But the time passed and despite all my efforts, I was still sick.
Then I was told 5yrs. And I hoped.
And five years came, then six, seven. I still had hope that I would recover.
I would think things like “when I’m better, I can’t wait to walk up Pen Y Fan again, or go on an overnight hike with my mum, or camping with friends for a week.”
Better to me then, meant recovered, fully recovered, back to how I was, strong and healthy.
I thought it would happen. I willed it to happen, but it didn’t.
Some days I would be so utterly despairing that I didn’t know how to continue.
But over the years, my hope has changed. It’s shifted.
As my health issues became more complicated, and allowed me less freedoms, I had to find peace, in order to survive.
Hoping I would fully recover was, I realised, for me a fairly unrealistic ideal.
Some people would think this is me being negative. It isn’t.
This is being realistic about what I have, and what I may have.
Hope looks different now. It’s on a smaller scale.
I hope that I will have a more comfortable day.
I hope that I will manage to sit in the shower soon.
I hope that I can laugh with my family, my loved ones.
I hope my seedlings, that I planted whilst in bed, grow and bloom, and that I get to see them.
I have adjusted hope to fit my life, instead of aspiring for something I have no control over.
In the context of M.E, sometimes I feel hope can be used as an expectation by the outside world, that if you hope hard enough, you will get better, you will recover. And whilst hope of course plays a part in holding on, it isn’t possible to simply ‘will’ yourself better from a complex long term disease.
It isn’t negative to acknowledge that.
I no longer use hope as a fantasy tool, to ponder on where or what I’d be doing if I were no longer sick.
Hope is a tool that helps me, I hope that I will have “good days” with less exhaustion, and less pain. I hope that I will be “better than now.”
And sometimes I think society doesn’t like this kind of hope.
Society wants us to think we will be completely healthy and able again one day, even though we have a chronic illness. (Meaning long term).
And if we don’t live by this version of hope, it’s thought we have given up. We have not.
This version of hope is unrealistic, but perhaps more comfortable for society to sit with.
But I will not sit with it anymore. For me now, hope it focussed on short term, in the moment, and that is where I find peace with my ill health.
Lizzy Horn
Twitter @hopefullizzy & Instagram @lizzyh_rn
Fundraising
A big thank you to Shirley Kay Mosaics who fundraised for us by kindly making and selling beautiful blue heart pendants. They all sold out in a few hours and she raised an amazing £245 for us. Thank you Shirley and everyone who bought one. 
An upcoming fundraiser is Blue Sunday. It is an annual tea party created by Anna to raise awareness of ME and money for ME charities whilst enjoying some cake. This year’s Blue Sunday takes place on the 15th May. 
Thank you to those planning on supporting Smile For ME, you can find out how to do so on our website smileforme.org.uk/bluesunday. Thank you Anna for creating a wonderful event and inviting us to be a part of it.
Thank you’s
A big thank you to everyone who has supported us this month. We are so grateful for the kindness and generosity which enables us to continue sending Smiles to those affected by ME. It means such a lot thank you.