[The people who wrote these messages have given permission for them to
be reposted.  If anyone isn't familiar with MERGE, their website is
http://www.meresearch.org.uk ]

Has anyone seen this yet? I think it's fantastic. If you go to the
ushopugive.com website you can see which stores are participating and
how much will be donated to the charity of your choice. I've been
getting car insurance quotes all day as mine runs out in a couple of
weeks and Churchill came up the cheapest. If I access the Churchill
website via ushopugive.com and take out the insurance then £9 will go
to the charity of my chioce - MERGE.

Also, I am ordering a new fitted bedroom from B and Q next week and  I
can order it on the B and Q website via ushopugive and 2-4% of the
purchase price can go to MERGE. That's another £30 or so to them.

<name>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shopping for ME Research

MERGE has linked up with UshopUgive.com, a new shopping website which
enables you to raise money for biomedical projects as you buy products
over the Internet. UshopUgive's vision is that charities and the causes
they support can benefit from the economic power of the Internet and
e-commerce. We are excited to be fundraising in this novel way since,
with the rapid growth of online shopping, UshopUgive could become a
major new source of income for ME Research, as well as other worthy
causes.

shopping online at UshopUgive. When you buy, you will trigger a
donation from the retailers to MERGE; on average, a generous 2% of your
total spend. You pay the same price as you would if you had walked into
the retailer's store or bought from their website. You use the stores'
sites in the normal way, but because you are shopping via the
UshopUgive website, the stores pay sales commission on everything you
buy and a portion is passed on to MERGE.

The product categories include appliances, clothes, books, computers &
software, department stores, drinks, gifts & flowers, grocery, health &
beauty, music & video, services & finance, toys & games, travel &
tickets, home & garden, and sports & leisure. The participating
retailers include Amazon, Comet, Waitrose, WH Smith and Lastminute.com,
with the list increasing all the time. Purchases can be for you
personally, or you might be able to buy for your workplace - for
example, perhaps the stationery needs of your workplace could be
supplied just as cheaply (if not cheaper) via UshopUgive. Often there
are deals available through the site that would not only save your
company money but would result in large payments to MERGE.

So, it's quick, it's free and (with your help) shopping this way could
generate significant funds for the advances in biomedical research that
we all want to see. But remember to select MERGE as the charity you
want to support prior to being linked directly to the retailer website
of your choice.

!
----
(from a person in the Rep. of Ireland)
Hi,

Yes I used this when doing some Christmas shopping. There are a lot of
very varied shops and places listed (mostly based in Britain and only
useful for people living  there but no good to me but I do use amazon
so go via  the ushopugive site so that MERGE gets a cut). Tesco for
example is on the list and probably a lot of people with ME use their
online shopping.

I did notice that some of the things  could generate quite a
substantial amount for MERGE as they either gave a pretty good
percentage of the sale price to the charity,  or a reasonable  flat
amount if someone purchased something.

This is the direct link to the MERGE page on the ushopugive website

http://www.ushopugive.com/default.asp?charid=637

<name2>
-----------------------------------------------------------------