Fundraising & Events

   8th – 14th March

Endometriosis UK continually aims to increase awareness, but it’s easier to get noticed during Awareness Week, so we have a few special things planned!

Lovely new leaflets A healthcare communications agency called Torre Lazur McCann have been supporting us over the last year on a pro bono basis. As part of this support, they have helped us redesign our leaflet, using our exisiting 'rose and thorn' image - we hope you like it! The new leaflet is aimed at women who are experiencing symptoms but don’t realise that they may be due to endometriosis. The leaflets will therefore aim to raise awareness among some of the people who need it most! They'll also contain all the usual information so will be just as useful to anyone who has just been diagnosed, or as a tool for explaining what endo is.

E-postcard & Self assessment tool Together Torre Lazur McCann and Endometriosis UK, with financial support from pharmaceutical compnay Takeda*, have developed an e-postcard and symptom questionnaire, and we think it’ll be the perfect time to launch these in Awareness Week.

The e-postcard will use the same artwork as our new leaflet, and will have a link to the self assessment tool. The self assessment tool is a basic questionnaire that has been designed to help women discuss their symptoms with their GP and to help them with their diagnosis.

We are going to send the e-postcard to all of our contacts, and ask them to forward it on. We hope to reach lots of women to make them aware of endometriosis and the symptoms, and encourage them to visit their GP if they are experiencing anything that suggests endo.

If you would like to be added to the list of recipients of the e-postcard, then please sign up to our e-newsletter here. So far we have over 6,000 people to send it to, and we’ll be asking all of them to forward it to all the women they know!

*Takeda UK have provided as a service to medicine the financial support for the production of this material, but have had no influence over the content

This is a new event, which we hope will become a yearly tradition. It’s basically a case of getting as many supporters as possible to all do a skydive at Brackley Airfield on 13th March. Not only will it raise funds, which will go directly towards supporting anyone affected by endo, but it will raise awareness too. Find out more!

We’re really excited about the launch of a fantastic new endometriosis booklet in Awareness Week.

The booklet, Living with Endometriosis, contains easy-to-understand information about endo, as well as useful advice and real-life stories from women living with the condition. We will distribute it to hospitals around the UK, and think it will be so helpful to patients who are receiving treatment for endometriosis. Many women have never heard of endometriosis when they are diagnosed, so to be able to provide them with this booklet will be especially valuable in helping them to understand and cope with their condition.

We will also be including a copy of Living with Endometriosis in our new member packs – so sign up now to receive your copy. If you are already a member, you can get your free copy by emailing Lucy at LTully@endometriosis-uk.org or calling the office on 020 7222 2781.

The medical input of Living with Endometriosis was provided by Endometriosis UK Trustee Dr. Caroline Overton, a Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, with editorial input from Lucy Tully, Information Officer at the Charity. Working together, they were able to combine medical knowledge of endo with knowledge of the sort of information that sufferers want, resulting in a booklet that we feel will really be useful to women with endometriosis.

We are extremely grateful to pharmaceutical company Takeda**, who have made it possible for Living with Endometriosis to be made by paying for an agency to provide editorial support for the author, and to design, produce and print the booklet. They are also kindly helping us to distribute it.

**Takeda UK have provided as a service to medicine the financial support for the production and printing of this booklet. They have had no input into the editorial content of this booklet but have reviewed for factual accuracy

In the run up to the Week, our local groups will be launching a campaign, targeting GP practice managers and nurses, to inform them about the services offered by Endometriosis UK and invite them to the next group meeting in their area.

Practice managers supervise the overall running of GP surgeries; from deciding which leaflets get displayed to gathering information about services available in the local area. They then pass this information on to the doctors at their practice. By targeting practice managers we hope that more GPs will become aware of the information and services available from us and our groups, for both themselves and their patients. Our group leaders will contact the practice managers and nurses at the 15 largest surgeries in their area and invite them to their next group meeting.

The invite will explain the services offered by Endometriosis UK, give details of the local group, and will include a poster and leaflet (we’ll stress that we are happy to provide more free materials for display!).

We have over 35 groups in the UK, and through this campaign, we are hopeful that our profile will be greatly boosted and more women will be informed of the extra support they can gain from us.

Every Awareness Week, we get lots of requests from the media so we’ll be at hand to provide them with case studies, information and interviews, while making sure we get the Charity’s name a good strong mention, so women know we’re here to help them. Would you like to share your story? See our ideas on what you can do to raise awareness for more advice on how to get into your local paper.

We’ve been working away on new information packs, and will launch these in Awareness Week.

Instead of our current ‘one size fits all’ pack, we’ve split it into four (plus added lots of extra stuff):

         Pre diagnosis
         Recently diagnosed
         Fertility
         Hysterectomy / post hysterectomy

We will also be adding to this list – next stop: a pain management info pack.

The pre-diagnosis is particularly significant for Awareness Week, as it is aimed at women who are undiagnosed, but experiencing symptoms. The information in the pack aims to give guidance on what to do next, and includes a symptom questionnaire, advice on what to say to their GP and how to get a referral.

We hope it’ll make women more aware of what to look out for, and give them the confidence to take the next step. It’ll be especially useful for women who have been prompted to visit our site after receiving the e-postcard.

So that's what we have planned so far...Please join us in raising awareness this March!

What can you do?