The ME Association

The ME Association has been providing expert help since 1980. We understand what living with ME/CFS (and Long Covid) is like, and we don’t think anyone should struggle alone.

More than 250,000 people in the UK live with ME/CFS and around 1,800,000 with Long Covid which represents a real health crisis. These are life-changing and indiscriminate medical conditions that affect both adults and children.

ME/CFS can lead to long-term disability and a lower quality of life than Multiple Sclerosis or Cancer. It often presents as a complex post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) triggered by an infection that dramatically impacts a person's ability to complete everyday tasks and to mobilise normally. Long Covid affects people in a similar way.

There are no effective drug treatments at this time, but convalescence and appropriate self-management can help stabilise and improve functional ability. Complete recovery from ME/CFS is rare.

We provide a safe and welcoming community for people affected by these conditions who come together and benefit from sharing their experiences.
We offer reliable and timely information using expert knowledge and have the largest range of literature covering all aspects of life with ME/CFS and Long Covid, and we campaign to raise awareness and bring about positive change particularly to health and social care services.
Support is available from ME Connect and the telephone helpline, via email and social media messaging. We offer membership, a magazine, newsletter, free information on the website including Medical Matters, and we respond effectively to the many requests for help that we receive daily.
We fund biomedical research including the UK ME/CFS Biobank, so that we can better understand what causes and perpetuates these diseases, and in the hope that effective treatments can be found.
We arrange training for healthcare professionals, offer a medical magazine, and are working with the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS to implement the recommendations from the NICE Guideline on ME/CFS.
We believe in collaboration and support Forward-ME, the ME Research Collaborative, DecodeME, The All-Party Parliamentary Group on ME, Chronic Illness Inclusion, and UK Long Covid initiatives.