November 2024

It's that time of the year again - we will be holding Christmas meets in various areas. Details are posted on Facebook. If you are interested in attending but not on Facebook, please drop us an email.

 
January 2024

In December, we had Christmas meets in Portsmouth and Southampton areas. Both were well-attended.

Towards the end of last year, we started organising virtual Zoom meetings for members. We will continue to do this. If you are interested, look out for our announcement via email or Facebook, or get in touch.

 
June 2023

The new team has been in place since February. Progress has been made mainly to re-establish local post-Covid meet-ups.

Portsmouth group - Monthly meets are doing nicely. Derek is so welcoming and personable.

Southampton group - We have had 2 meets. Both were greatly enjoyed by all. We hope to have another meet soon. Members will be emailed the details.

IOW group - There have been 2 meets in Newport. Another will be planned once everyone recovers from flu/cold.

Havant group - Meets have stopped because our coordinator has moved. However, we are interested in seeing if there is demand between Havant and Waterlooville, on the edge of Leigh Park. So do let us know if this is of interest to you and you could get there.

In the meet-ups, we talked about how everyone was doing, health issues, and lots of other things; They were also opportunities for a spot of lunch and a laugh. They were easy-going and accepting. All felt that attending was worth the effort.

 
December 2022

We had Christmas meet-ups in Portsmouth, Havant and Southampton areas. These were our first official events since Covid. It was a great to see fellow members again during this festive season!

 
August 2022

We asked our members to complete a survey to give us their view on our services and on the future of the charity. Many thanks to those who responded.

 
December 2019

The month started well with three new members attending the Open Day event in Winchester, as well as a number of regular members. We shall be looking forward to the Christmas meal events being organised in Southampton, Southsea and Horndean and hope to arrange other Open Days in the new year. Remember you can register your interest in attending an Open Day by clicking on the link on our Welcome Page. We shall arrange these one-off events to accommodate new members and interest levels.

 
October 2019

We've just held our Annual General Meeting at Cosham and despite atrocious weather, eight members managed to make it on the day. It was nice to see some new faces - as well as some old ones. The sandwiches were delicious - we shall have to order those again!

 
April 2019

We had a nice Easter "high tea" at the Crafty Bug in Southampton, with ten members and partners attending on the day. It was great to see some new faces and catch up on old friends. We hope to hold another meeting in Southampton in the summer - this will probably take the form of a picnic in the park if the weather is decent. We'll decide nearer the time.

Monthly meetings are continuing in Southsea and Horndean.

 
March 2019

Sorry about the delay in updating the website folks! We had a nice Christmas meal at the Crafty Bug cafe in Southampton in December with 18 attendees. It was great to see so many familiar faces and to catch up with everyone. We were talking about having another meeting at Easter so that will be nice. Details yet to be finalised.

Monthly meetings have continued in Southsea and Cowplain - many thanks to the organisers there. Sally is trying to start up meetings in the Fareham area, please contact her for more details.

If you have contributions for the members-only area, please email them to webmaster@friendswithme.org.uk

 
October 2018

Liz has kindly offered to run our "Secret Santa" again this year. Many thanks to her. Details are available from the members area.

 
July 2018

We have just held an Extraordinary General Meeting to update our Constitution, followed by an Annual General Meeting to conclude the official admin that a charity has to do. 11 members were in attendance at the Sarisbury Green Community Centre in Fareham. We had tea and chat and two of us (who shall remain nameless!) messed around on the pool table with various degrees of success at ball potting. It was a fun meeting and it was good to get a "bit of business" done too.

Minutes of the meeting and a copy of the revised constitution are available for download from the members only area.

 
April 2018

We have just had our Open day at Badgers Farm Community Centre near Winchester. 13 people attended including family, friends and carers. It was great to meet new people and discuss lots of issues with regard to improving our quality of life despite the challenges of ME/CFS. This included discussions on pain, sleep, diet, dealing with friends and family who dont understand the illness, and general ways to make life less of a struggle including pacing and energy-saving tips.

A couple of new members tried out mobility scooters for the first time and found they were easier to use then they had expected. There was quite a bit of excitement about the freedom they represented and there is a proposal to visit Hilliers Arboritum in summer, borrowing the scooters there.

Several members have added their details to the Contacts List and they can use this to make arrangements for such an outing. Please let us know date and time if you do arrange a meet-up as there may be others not yet on the List who'd like to join you.

Many thanks to all who attended yesterday.

 
February 2018

Our first Open day at Horndean Community Centre was a success with 11 people attending.  As a result, the members have now arranged a regular monthly meeting and we hope this will draw the support of other members not able to make the Open Day but still wanting face to face friendship. Please see our Noticeboard for the next meeting date.

Well done to all involved.