#MillionsMissing
A history of UK actions
#MillionsMissing is an important date in #MEAction’s calendar. Every year, around ME Awareness Day on 12th May, people with ME, carers and allies around the world organise and take part in public and virtual events.
We come together to raise awareness of what it’s like to live with this condition and demand action and change for the ME community. We are the #MillionsMissing and it’s time for people to see us.
#MillionsMissing aims
Equality
To demand equality for all people with ME who have been stigmatised and ostracised from healthcare and support.
Treatment
To demand effective treatment to manage this disease based on the best available evidence.
Research
To demand research funding commensurate to disease prevalence and burden.
2021
As COVID-19 continues to restrict our ability to meet in person, we hold the second entirely virtual #MillionMissing. For 2021 our UK team has met with others working and campaigning around ME from across the globe. You can hear from authors, researchers, MPs and more in our series of interviews this year.
There is joy, sadness and hope, so sit back and get to know some of the inner workings of the ME world in more depth.
2020
I got a virus, I didn't die, but I never recovered. We are the #MillionsMissing
Watch our 2020 campaign film:
As COVID-19 devastates the world, with hundreds of thousands dying from this novel disease, another disastrous outcome lays in wait.
Increasing masses are reporting long term illness after contracting COVID-19.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is triggered by a virus in up to 80% of cases, and leads to the lowest average quality of life amongst all diseases measured, including various cancers, lupus, chronic renal failure, heart disease and more.
People with ME are now raising the alarm. They got viruses from which they didn’t recover, and they know more acutely than anyone else: death is not the only devastating outcome from this pandemic.
Virtual Event
In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we had to do things a little differently. The #MEAction UK and #MEAction Scotland teams joined forces to create a bumper virtual event with brilliant speakers from across the UK.
Watch the #MillionsMissing 2020 UK virtual event. Including interviews and speeches from:
- Carol Monaghan MP
- Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian
- Catherine Hale and Dr Anna Ruddock from the Chronic Illness Inclusion Project
- Professor Chris Ponting, Chair of Medical Bioinformatics, University of Edinburgh.
- Dionne Joseph, Carer
- Dr Nina Muirhead, surgeon and ME educator
- Vicky Foxcroft MP, Shadow Minister for Disabled Peolpe
- David Green (director of the Florence Nightingale Museum)
- Hannah Sweeney, pwME
- Laura Smith, pwME
- Ellie Rushton, Ally
2019
#MillionsMissing events and demonstrations have taken place across the UK in all shapes and sizes. In 2019 more than 30 events were held: from London to Glasgow, Cardiff to Sheffield and many more. Over the years we’ve seen stories shared, politicians speaking, musicians performing – even stilt walkers and giant pandas! Another important part of our events is amplifying the voices of people with ME who are housebound or bedbound, and therefore too unwell to join us in person.
