We are planning of having our regular mix of sessions in 2026. We have also received £700 funding from Forever Manchester which we will use to both increase the number and the resources that we can put into several of our events.
2nd Friday of the Month Sessions
We will be having meetings every second Friday of the Month which will generally be on Zoom but might occasionally be face to face. These will be a mix of speakers, facilitated peer sessions and other facilitated sessions. We try to make sure our second Friday of the month sessions have broad appeal to people with ME/CFS and Long Covid as well as their carers whilst at the same time having a good mix so that there would be something for everyone.
So far we have Radical Acceptance in January, Vestibular issues in February and ADHD in March. We have Chester Zoo in July, are probably having a face to face park party in August.
We have put together a survey and people can share their preferences for the remaining slots here.
Face to Face Socials
Our Face to Face meet ups have been at their most popular since the pandemic. We will be trying to have a face to face event each month but we might miss out the odd month is we don’t have enough volunteers or if our outdoor events get rained off.
So far we are looking at Stockroom in January, a meal out in Parrs Wood, Manchester in February and Stockroom again in March. These three events will be run in partnership with Greater Manchester Long Covid Support. This is because they had been consistently running a monthly face to face event but had recently been struggling to do so. This will allow members from both groups to come together and benefit from peer support.
We will try to have some outdoor events over the warmer months weather permitting in Alexandria Park in Edgeley and Vernon Park in Stockport.
Zoom Socials
Our Zoom socials tend to be unstructured and an opportunity to catch up with other people with ME/CFS and Long Covid as well as to ask questions and share ideas. We have these most months but do occasionally miss one or two depending on what additional sessions we have arranged.
Bonus Sessions and Activities
We will have a number of bonus sessions depending on demand and funding we can secure. So far we are having some adapted Yoga sessions starting in January with Felicity. We also have a session “Silence in the Age of Noise” with Catherine Annis at 2.30pm 19th January who we had deliver a yoga nidra session last year. We will also have 2 sessions with her in March and April although we are still finalising what they will be. We are discussing potential options and following up some leads.
We have just secured Jeanie De Bon to do a session for us on February 17th at 5pm on Zoom on hypermobility. She has a lot of experience as a physiotherapist looking at hypermobility as well as back pain. She is a renowned authority on hypermobility and EDS and is a recommended source by The Ehlers Danlos Association.
