Back in 2017, a review of the holiday homes we managed through our group network found that we lacked the resources to train, supervise and support the volunteers that ran them. This lack of oversight exposed us to legal and financial risks, and placed additional responsibility and pressure on the volunteers. We therefore decided that, as other organisations are better placed to offer this service, the MS Society should stop running holiday homes.
Our risk management system ensures that everyone who takes part in your events and activities, visits your property, or uses your transport can feel confident that we take their health, safety and wellbeing seriously.
Our volunteers play an incredible role supporting the MS community across the UK, and we want to ensure that volunteering is a positive experience for everyone.
There are rare times, however, where volunteers are unhappy with their experience, and where an issue about volunteering needs to be addressed. An example of this could be where the Code of Conduct is not followed. You can see our Code of Conduct here.
World MS Day had the theme of ‘connections’ this year and we focussed on ways our community has been staying connected. We also celebrated Volunteers’ Week and shared stories about how our volunteers have helped people to stay connected with their community. And for Carers Week, we focussed on this year’s theme of 'Making Caring Visible and Valued'.
To celebrate these important awareness dates, we shared lots of content across our channels to raise awareness of MS.
This year we’re holding MS Walks in London, Belfast, Cardiff, Bristol and Manchester. Together, we’re aiming to raise over £300,000 for the Stop MS Appeal.
Each event will have 1km, 5km, 10km or 20km routes to choose from, which can be walked, rolled or strolled at any pace. You can also join an event as a volunteer, either individually or as part of a group. There are lots of roles available, such as being a marshal along the route, handing out water and snacks, or just cheering everyone on.
To sign up for a walk, or to volunteer at one, just click on a location below:
We’ve got a challenge that will spring our supporters into action up and down the UK even though social distancing guidelines are still in place and we can’t fundraise the way we normally would... 100k Your Way!
What is it?
Our Fundraising Team has been working hard to bring back our 100K Your Way challenge, and this summer it's bigger and better than ever!
We’re encouraging everyone to get involved and, as volunteers, you are so vital to our fundraising.
Earlier this year, we asked our amazing community to once more get behind our Stop MS Appeal to help find treatments for everyone with MS. Read about the appeal here. We were delighted to introduce Octopus, our revolutionary mega-trial for progressive MS. Find out more about Octopus here.
We’ve joined a coalition of 18 charities – including Kidney Care UK and Blood Cancer UK – to call on employers to put extra measures in place for vulnerable staff going back to work.
This is in light of growing evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines provide less protection to some people with a weakened immune response due to a specific health condition or treatment.
As you know, England, Scotland and Wales have recently announced a delay to their planned dates for lifting further/remaining COVID restrictions. It's likely that Northern Ireland will do likewise. We expect further announcements on:
England – 5 July
N Ireland – 17 June (but no information at time of writing)
Since mid-April, we’ve been holding Zoom sessions to explain the new processes and paperwork our groups need to use if they wish to restart certain face-to-face services and social activities. Thanks to everyone who’s attended, submitted their documents via the Portal and had their restarts approved. We hope our volunteers, members and service users will enjoy being together once again, as soon as they feel safe to do so.
