This campaign is to raise funds for the development of Chronic.Market, an online marketplace for artists, artisans and other entrepreneurs suffering from the debilitating, currently untreatable chronic illness ME/CFS to sell their work, share their stories, and raise funds for research.   <img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/42515140_1570570571280974_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="42515140_1570570571280974_r.jpeg" /> My Journey with Chronic Illness: From Competitive Boxer to Wheelchair User My name is <a href="http://www.aprilwrites.com">April Thompson</a> , and I suffer from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), commonly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or ME/CFS, a devastating multi-system disease that causes dysfunction of the neurological, immune, endocrine and energy metabolism systems. It often follows an infection and leaves 75% of those affected unable to work and 25% homebound are bedridden, some of whom are too ill to even speak or feed themselves. An estimated 15-30 million people worldwide have ME/CFS. There is no treatment, and no definitively known cause, though study after study has shown the significant abnormalities in the immune, neurological and other symptoms compared to healthy controls. I developed ME/CFS 13 years ago when I was in peak health and physical conditioning, a multi-sport athlete who had run marathons, boxed competitively, and climbed mountains all over the world. A cold/flu virus lingered and left me so weak I couldn't make it around the block, though just days earlier I'd been able to run miles on end. It has waxed and waned over the years, but I never fully regained my functioning. ME is a spectrum illness, meaning that there is a broad range of severity.  I am blessed to still work a full time job, as most cannot, but still the smallest bout of physical exertion is enough to potentially make me ill for days. At this stage, I often rely on wheelchair assistance to go further than a block, yet my level of functioning is considered quite high compared to the majority of other patients. With my numerous physical activities taken away, I have turned to a variety of creative hobbies, including visual arts, and connected with numerous artists and artisans around the world who also suffer from ME/CFS. Some are confined to their beds. Most are unable to work regular jobs.  Many are consistently denied disability benefits and struggle to provide for themselves and their families. All have a yearning to be productive and share their creations and stories with the world -- a difficult feat when small everyday tasks leave some exhausted and cognitive dysfunction can make interactions impossible.  <iframe media_type="0" media_id="gBBEZenRJWI" class="youtube-replace" title="YouTube video player" style="margin-bottom:20px;width:560px;height:315px;" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gBBEZenRJWI/?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="1"></iframe> Chronic.Market: Empowering Artists with ME/CFS  My vision for Chronic.Market is a platform for these artists and artisans to sell their work, share their stories, create awareness for ME/CFS,  and raise funds for research and advocacy. I currently have 75+ artists and artisans in 16 countries registered for the platform, 75% of whom are moderately to severely affected (most being all or partially housebound), and have enlisted Roobykon, a web developer specializing in multi-vendor, multi-currency platforms to design and deploy the site. I will serve as the site administrator and run the platform on a volunteer basis, but seek to raise the funds to get the platform operational, which will allow me to take a smaller percentage from each artist's sale to cover operating costs, and leave more to donate to ME Action, a patient advocacy organization, Open Medical Foundation, which conducts critical research from private funding on ME/CFS, or other group nominated by participants. The amount I am looking to raise will cover the cost of the site development and deployment, including purchase of software, one year web hosting, targeted advertising/marketing of the platform's launch, and the 3% fees taking from the Gofundme donation platform.   By making a donation, you are: helping economically empower chronically ill individuals, helping raise awareness for this maligned and misunderstood condition, helping raise funds for critical research, and helping to get the artistic talents and stories of chronically ill artists, musicians, writers, designers and artisans shared worldwide! Every amount, large or small, counts! Please share this campaign far and wide.

Anonymous

Marielle Walter

Katherine Jones

Daniella De Franco

Paul Meyer

Francesca Valente

Beverly Muntain

Linda Morgenstern

Emily Taylor

Shirley Franklin

Voni Detamore

Jelena Ačanski

maud ROLLAND

Kate Diaz

Angeli Kirk

An  Online Marketplace for Chronically Ill Artists

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

Eligible for Profile Share Badge

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

isEligibleForProfileBadge

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Just $604$ to go! Make an impact.

An Online Marketplace for Chronically Ill Artists

Just $604 to go!
Make an impact.