Invite your MP to the next APPG on M.E.
November 05, 2020
A second All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) meeting for M.E. in as many months is taking place in November. Following October’s APPG on welfare benefits, this meeting will focus on access to healthcare for people with M.E.
This meeting will be taking place on Tuesday 17 November, 9:30 - 10:30am. As always, we’re encouraging you to invite your MP to attend. Your MP can get details on how to attend by emailing Carol Monaghan, chair of the APPG for M.E.
Our medical adviser Dr Julia Newton and Dr Sue Pemberton are scheduled to cover the main issues relating to diagnosing and treating M.E. We are also supporting someone with M.E. to share their experience of accessing diagnosis and the treatment or symptom management.
You can encourage your MP to attend by:
- sharing our APPG tweet with them and mentioning your MP's Twitter handle
- using the template email at the bottom of this page.
We appreciate that the minutes from the last APPG for M.E. on welfare benefits are yet to be published. We’ve contacted Carol Monaghan’s office and will share the minutes from the meeting as soon as we’re able to.
What is an APPG?
All-Party Parliamentary Groups are informal cross-party groups of MPs and Members of the House of Lords. They meet regularly to discuss, campaign and promote certain issues, in this case M.E. When effective, they are a great means of spreading awareness of an issue within Parliament and the media. At the inaugural meeting of the APPG on M.E. in January, the group agreed to focus on:
- biomedical research
- children and young people with M.E.
- access to healthcare
- access to financial support and welfare benefits
The group will look to produce a report on these key issues which can be used to lobby the Government to improve the lives of people with M.E.
Template email
You can email your MP or call their office by using the details found on the Parliament website. We've provided a template as follows for those that need it.
Dear YOUR MP'S NAME
I am writing as one of your constituents to ask that you attend the next meeting of the APPG for M.E. via Zoom, 9.30am to 10.30am, Tuesday 17 November. The group is chaired by Carol Monaghan MP. Please contact her office for an invitation and Zoom link on carol.monaghan.mp@parliament.uk
M.E. is a long-term (chronic), fluctuating, neurological condition that causes symptoms affecting many body systems, more commonly the nervous and immune systems. It is an often misunderstood condition that affects roughly 400 children and adults in our constituency.
At this next meeting, you can hear about the challenges people with M.E. face in receiving a diagnosis for their illness and issues faced with treatment for M.E. If you'd like to find out more, please contact Sam Bromiley at UK charity Action for M.E.
Kind regards
ADD YOUR NAME and ADDRESS
