MS is often misunderstood, but by shining a spotlight on the experiences of people living with MS we can help to change that. MS Awareness Week runs each year, this year it’s from 19 until 25 April and is your chance to stand up and speak out. We’d love your help to make this year bigger and better than ever!
Following the departure of Emma Whitcombe in December 2020, we’re delighted to welcome our new Executive Director of Engagement and Income Generation. Clare Horwood joined us on Monday 22 February after 15 years’ experience in the charity sector.
She’s worked at organisations including Target Ovarian Cancer, Shelter, Diabetes UK and Mind. And taken on a variety of roles in this time as well covering Individual Giving, Major Donors, Public Fundraising, Associate Director and Director of Fundraising.
As the vaccine programme continues to roll out, teams across our organisation have been working incredibly hard to respond to our community’s need for information.
One in three calls to our free helpline are now COVID-19 related and we receive many questions from our community about vaccines. The top three questions we’re receiving on the helpline are:
When will I receive my vaccination and will my carer also receive it?
In March it will have been four years since the Government promised to reform social care, and yet we’re still waiting for change. It’s now more important than ever that we continue to raise awareness of the broken social care system – made worse by the pandemic. We want to do this by sharing the stories of people affected by MS.
We’re looking for help to find people from across England to inform our influencing work around social care, and work with our press team to talk publicly about their experience.
Our IT Support Team are urgently investigating a problem with MS Society email accounts. If you have an MS Society email account, please DO NOT attempt to change your login password.
If you try to change your password, you’ll receive an error message and the change will not be processed properly.
Until this issue is resolved, please do not try to change your password. We’ll let you know via this website, or your volunteer manager, once it’s resolved.
We've been working with our developers to fix issues we've been having with publishing local events and services on the website. This is done by an automatic update that runs every evening, pulling any new events added to the Portal onto groups' pages on the main website.
Issues we're working through include:
Making sure when a local group is removed its associated events no longer appear on the website
Making sure events deactivated in the portal don't appear on the website
At our AGM last year, members voted to change how we work. One of those changes was to remove the annual membership fee. We don’t want cost to be a barrier for anyone who is thinking of joining the MS Society, so instead of charging a membership fee we’re now asking people to contribute what they can.
If members would like to receive a printed copy of MS Matters three times a year, then they will need to pay a £5 magazine subscription.
Whether you’re new to quiz hosting or just looking for some extra support to take your quiz to the next level, we have just the thing for you!
During the month of March, sign up to our Scott Mills’ DIY Quiz Month and help raise vital funds to support everyone affected by MS. You could join with family and friends, or even connect with another local group for some friendly rivalry and the chance to meet some new faces.
Do you want to take the next step on your campaigning journey?
Local Action for MS offers an exciting new range of activities and resources to support you to campaign in your local area. So, whether you’re frustrated about hospital parking charges, concerned about cuts to local MS services, or want to speak to a decision-maker about an issue, we can support you to make a difference. And even though we can’t meet face to face at the moment, there’s still plenty of ways you can take action online.
