2023 CIM Global Marketing Excellence Awards

Our MCAS Moments campaign, created by Mast Cell Action volunteer - Jillian Shields with artwork by Mast Cell Action volunteer Katrin, is a finalist at the 2023 CIM Global Marketing Excellence Awards!

Shared across our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook platforms, our MCAS Moments campaign shares a series of moments in life with MCAS, to help us to connect with others experiencing similar moments and to raise awareness among the wider population of what these moments can be like for people living with MCAS.

We hope this helps us to get the message out about MCAS and raise awareness even further.

Thank you Jillian and Katrin for bringing such an important campaign to life.

MCAS webinar for Healthcare providers

In June, we were delighted to hold our first MCAS webinar with Dr Bethan Myers MCAS Specialist Dietitian, Chloe Hall.

Many Healthcare providers came along for an introduction to MCAS and expert guidance from our guest speakers.

Thank you to Dr Myers and Chloe for giving up their time to support the session and help us to share knowledge with others.

There were lots of questions at the end of the session which we will be developing into a Q&A for our website. Watch this space for further details!

If you missed this session, don't worry - you can still view it on our YouTube channel here.

MCAS presentations

We are delighted to have been asked to present to multiple groups recently including Norfolk and Dorset Long Covid Multi-disciplinary teams, a group of dietitians interested in MCAS, and the Stockport ME support group.

With nearly 200 people attending these presentations, we are delighted to have had the opportunity to raise awareness and share knowledge about MCAS and hope to be able to continue to expand on this work in coming months.

If you are part of a team who would benefit from a presentation about MCAS, please do get in touch so that we can create something for you.

Community information session

We held community information sessions for people affected by MCAS in May and July. This introductory session provided a thorough insight into Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and managing triggers and symptoms.

Thank you to Chloe Hall, who shared her top tips on how to manage a low histamine diet and cope with the food restrictions often associated with MCAS.

If you missed the session, you can catch up by viewing it on our YouTube channel here.

Advocacy groups

We are regularly contacted by people looking for support with advocacy.

In order to maximise the support we can offer in this area, we recently presented to Advocacy Focus, a charity that provides high-quality advocacy services across the North-West of England. This session was designed to share information about MCAS and help attendees to understand the difficulties often faced by those living with MCAS. 

This presentation was recorded and we intend to work with other advocacy charities to raise awareness across the UK. If you are an advocacy group interested in learning more about MCAS, please get in touch for further information.

Mast Cell Action Trustee, Gawain with Dr Myers and Morwenna Opie Moran one of the PoTS UK Trustees - July 2022

Dr Bethan Myers recently presented at the PoTS Masterclass Conference on behalf of Mast Cell Action sharing that; based on a small sample of survey respondents, MCAS appears to be a condition that overlaps with a diagnosis of Long Covid (and PoTS). We hope that we will learn more about this link with time and research.

Trustee, Gawain spoke with doctors at the BSACI - May 2022

This year's annual immunology conference (The BSACI) coincided with the world allergy conference… so it was a great opportunity for the charity to not only meet UK based medical professionals but also engage with doctors and researchers from around the world.

Gawain and Isaac, a junior doctor doing an internship with the charity, manned the stand and spoke to many different specialists, distributing our literature on MCAS and sharing patient stories. We told people about Mast Cell Actions activities and recruited more supportive doctors!

Ruth, Soumya and Isaac at the BSACI - October 2021

We attended the BSACI annual congress in Harrogate to raise awareness. We spoke to doctors, nurses, dieticians, and other healthcare professionals about MCAS, and shared educational materials and wellbeing resources to help support people affected by MCAS.

This was a great opportunity to give out literature and engage with healthcare professionals.

National Lottery Awards for All

We are delighted to share that we have been awarded a National Lottery Awards for All grant to create a self-management resource for people living with MCAS.

The pack will include symptom logs and guidance sheets to help individuals to manage the complex triggers often associated with MCAS and will be available to download for free from our website.

We can’t wait to be able to share this with you!

Thank you to the players of The National Lottery!