Hello to all our supporters and readers of the Emerge Australia newsletter!
Well I thought February was a busy month – but that pales into insignificance when we consider how hectic March has been to date.
In this newsletter you will hear all about our highly successful ME/CFS Parliamentary Friends Group meeting held on 10 March on behalf of the ME/CFS Alliance Australia. Thanks to all alliance members, and various members of the community for inspiring your local MPs to come along. To the hard working Emerge Australia team and volunteers, we had the highest turnout of MPs to date and all your hard work paid off – thank you.
The important thing was that many of the MPs who attended stayed for up to 30 minutes. Some like Assistant Health Minister, The Hon. Rebecca White MP, stayed for 45 minutes and chatted afterwards with members of the community. This was exceptional given the myriad of other commitments our MPs had on the same day. We are very grateful to them all and for your wonderful support. You can read more about the event further on in this newsletter.
As you are all aware, Emerge Australia needs to raise much needed funds to support our services and community support let alone our clinical education, research and advocacy work. We have therefore launched a new team-based initiative called: Pedal for Power.
Pedal for Power is NOT a cycling event. It is an Emerge Australia fundraiser designed specifically to include you.
This is an innovative PEM informed fundraising initiative that has two gears:
• One that is designed for those living with ME/CFS and long COVID
• One for friends and allies to help you build teams to support you
From 15 March to 12 May, we invite you to rally your allies, friends and supporters to donate to a “pedal” of your choosing. All funds raised will go directly to Emerge Australia to sustain and strengthen our existing services.
Paced actions. Real Care. We hope you are able to start fundraising for Emerge Australia today.
Our sincere thanks to our Ambassadors Sophie Scott OAM and Tracey Spicer AM for adjudicating our Excellence in Long COVID Journalism Award. We congratulate all participants but particularly the winner Felicity Nelson who received her award from Assistant Health Minister The Hon. Rebecca White MP.
On 2 March, Health Minister The Hon. Mark Butler MP announced the much awaited investment of $110 million over three years to support new projects that help prevent chronic conditions and improve care for people living with them. “The funding will be delivered through a new Chronic Conditions Prevention and Integrated Care Grants Program, designed to support initiatives that strengthen prevention, improve coordination of care and benefit people with multiple chronic conditions.”
The new framework, supported by the new grants program, aims to improve the lives and health outcomes of Australians living with, or at risk of, chronic conditions.”
Emerge Australia welcomes this announcement and is already consulting widely on opportunities to ensure that projects for people with ME/CFS, long COVID and associated energy limiting conditions are considered. Once we know more we will share with the community, so – watch this space!!!
That’s enough from me. Thanks to everyone who writes in and comments on social media or to those who call or email me. Sometimes it takes me a little while to respond to you but I will always respond so thanks for your patience. I do hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and I look forward to sharing more with you next time.
