Left: Douglas Sewell
Trustee with Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland

Right: Yolanda Barker
Group Coordinator and Assemble Volunteer User Panel member

As the launch of Assemble in 2026 fast approaches, we’ve been lucky enough to speak with Douglas, Trustee with Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS), who uses Assemble for his volunteering.

House of Lords member Baroness Casey is currently carrying out an independent review into adult social care to:

• understand how well the system is supporting people
• identify the challenges individuals face in accessing the care they need
• make recommendations to improve outcomes for those relying on adult social care

She’s keen to hear directly from people about their personal experiences of care, and we want to make sure the voices of people affected by MS are strongly represented.

You can now raise money to fund our vital research by selling your unwanted books and clothes though our new partners WeBuyBooks and Thrift Plus.

How do I recycle books?

Head to WeBuyBooks. Click ‘Sell my items’ to start scanning or searching for books. You’ll then be made an offer. When you’re asked how you’d like to be paid, select ‘donate’ and choose the MS Society.

Learn more here.

Safeguarding Adults Week runs from 17 to 21 November. It's a time for organisations to come together and raise awareness of safeguarding. And it's the perfect opportunity for us to put safeguarding in the spotlight for our volunteers.

So, we're inviting you to join us for a 'Safe for All' safeguarding session — to share experiences, meet our Safeguarding Responders, and learn about keeping everyone safe.

We want to let you know that, as part of the organisation’s cost-saving measures, we've made the very difficult decision to suspend the MSS Designs service.

All live orders will be completed and delivered, but no further orders will be taken.

We know this will be disappointing for many, but our focus is to prioritise our funds to continue providing support for people living with and impacted by MS.

As part of our Black History Month celebrations, we hosted a spotlight webinar on MS and ethnicity.

Laura Belscott, Research Involvement and Inclusion Manager, gave an overview of our Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan for Research.

We heard from Dr Sharifa Battashi (Queen Mary University of London) about the MS Peer Research Study, which investigates the healthcare experiences of Black British and South Asian people living with MS. Peer Researcher Karen Chong shared their experiences being involved in the study.

October was Menopause Awareness Month – read more about how we celebrated and access our new menopause guidance here.

We put on a free webinar with Dr Jennifer Cooney, Health Physiologist, Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner and Health Coach, who introduced what menopause is and its impact. The session provided practical information for those experiencing menopause, as well as anyone wanting to better understand it and feel confident supporting others.

It’s taken some time to get here, but we’re excited to announce our new data platform, Sage, and volunteer management system, Assemble, have gone live for staff.

Over the next few months, staff will be undertaking training and getting used to Assemble, so we’re ready to support you to start using it from January 2026 onwards.

With Project Mead changes underway, we’ve been reviewing some of our policies and – for the first time – created a volunteering policy. This is a huge milestone in our commitment to you.

We’ve also updated our policy on how we problem solve with volunteers and created a new policy and guidance on fundraising with people in vulnerable circumstances.

Click on a document below to learn more.

Volunteering policy

Over the last few months, we’ve been introducing you to Give a Little — our new contactless payment provider.

We’ve been onboarding the first few groups and are pleased to offer it now to any others that are interested.

If you’d like to find out more, or get signed up, you’ll first need to have a meeting with Annabel, our Performance and Policy Manager for Volunteering.