That is because our board has not been able to select the project to receive the money yet due to a number of factors. We are waiting on a number of external factors that we have no control over. (Eg potential projects we know about but they are waiting on external approvals). Also with this being our first attempt at a run, it was a challenge to predict what amount we might raise. The amount we raise can impact the decision on the most effective place to invest.
When we started the run idea there wasn’t much available in Canada and just recently we now have options such as supporting Canada’s new ME research network or OMF Canada as they finally announced they are open for business. We’ve waited a long time to see these announcements. We hoped they would arrive but we couldn’t pick them when they didn’t exist yet in case they didn’t materialize. We would have had a real mess if that occurred.
Now with two major initiatives available, there may be other researchers appear on the scene now.
Next, we have to see how much we can raise. We’re hoping more participants and donors will sign up plus we have a lot of good prizes for the silent auction to sell. There’s still 2 weeks - anything could happen and hopefully a nice large donation will come our way. Having a large amount to invest in ME research would be a nice problem to resolve.
If you have suggestions for where we should consider investing the proceeds, please email Alison Rae (CEO) at
info@actioncind.org.
As we are a Canadian charity, the funds must go to a qualified donee as defined by the CRA and remain in Canada. The research has to be for ME and biological based. It must be a sound research project with all the traditional aspects of a good project. We need to do our due diligence and then make our selection.
A lot of people having been working very hard for many months behind the scenes to get ME research going in Canada and things are starting to happen. It’s exciting times and changes happening every few weeks. We’ve got unprecedented and history making support from the federal Minister of Health, not once, but at least 5 times in the past few months. We got $1.4 million from CIHR which is huge compared to previous funding. We want to be sure our investment is going to help this movement grow and accomplish meaningful research as much as possible. Our organization is committed to advancing research in Canada. We look forward to being on Dr Moreau’s team.
If anyone can help with a donation, we would greatly appreciate the support. Even using something like igive.com when you shop online is helpful for our organization and doesn’t cost you anything if finances are tight.