26/05/2026
Just posted on LinkedIN to gain insight.
As M.E. Awareness Month draws to a close in a couple of days, it feels like the right moment to pause and reflect on this year's impact.
Honestly, what the data shows is both stark and saddening.
Across the UK this May, mental health awareness has rightly dominated the conversation. It is embedded across corporate, healthcare, education, public sector and media activity, generating tens of thousands of LinkedIn posts and thousands of participating organisations.
By comparison, M.E./C.F.S awareness activity has remained largely confined to dozens of organisations and, at most, a few hundred posts.
Even when taking conservative numbers, the difference is striking:
100–200x more organisations and content for mental health than M.E./C.F.S
In some sectors (like and ), the ratio rises even higher.
This is not about competing causes.
It’s about recognising a systemic gap in awareness.
Because M.E./C.F.S is not a rare or minor condition: It affects at least 390,000 people in the UK. Around 1.3 million people meet M.E. diagnostic criteria when under-recognition is accounted for, and for many, quality of life is lower than conditions like late-stage liver failure and the late stages of some cancers.
Yet awareness, and crucially, understanding, remains limited where it matters most.
When setting up Stripy Lightbulb CIC in 2018, we deliberately focused training on three sectors:
👉 Healthcare
👉 Business / workplaces
👉 Education
Because these are the environments where gaps in understanding most often translate directly into:
- Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
- Inadequate care pathways
- Workplace exclusion or harm
- Lack of appropriate educational support
Ultimately, poorer outcomes for people with M.E. (pwME).
Whilst we focus on structured educational courses (CPD accredited), we acknowledge the place awareness holds in increasing basic understanding and tackling stigma.
What’s particularly difficult to see is the ripple effect: When awareness is low in these areas, it shows up everywhere, including in how little visibility M.E./C.F.S. gets even during its own awareness month.
So as May ends, we’d really like to open this up to this LinkedIN community:
đź’¬ How do we get more businesses, schools, and healthcare organisations actively involved in M.E. Awareness Month (or Week/Day) next year?
What would make engagement easier or more compelling?
Where are the barriers?
What has worked (or not worked) in your experience?
The scale of the gap is jaw‑dropping, but it also shows us exactly where change needs to happen.
Let’s use that insight to do something about it.
