Eating Disorders Awareness Week

EDAW 2010 - What happened?

February 22nd-28th 2010 was Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Thank you for your interest in Eating Disorders Awareness Week. During EDAW, beat worked hard to raise awareness of eating disorders and our services right across the UK.

Monday 22nd

We launched our manifesto:

In preparation for this year's general election, beat launched its campaign manifesto - calling on the government to deliver real change to people affected by eating disorders.

You can download a copy of the manifesto above, or you can request one using the Request a Campaign Pack area of the beat21 page.

21 hours of support:

beat's helpline services stayed open for 21 hours beginning at 00:21 and closing at 21:21 Monday evening,  offering support and information to those who needed it.

The event captured the interest of the media, so that others could witness the real difference that our helplines make to the lives of people affected by eating disorders.

Tweet 21:

On the Monday we launched our first major campaign on Twitter. We tweeted key statistics about our work, as well as updates on the Awareness Week campaign.

We will be calling upon all our members to join us, making sure our message - that eating disorders can be beaten - reaches as many people as possible.

If you would like to find out more, follow us on Twitter here

Recovery Club:

During Awareness Week, we ran a number of open online recovery clubs. The recovery club project provides online peer support to young people affected by eating disorders. For the first time we opened the recovery club up to all service users under 25.

To find out more click here

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Tuesday 23rd

beat Cymru launch, The Senedd/National Assembly for Wales

The week saw the official launch of beat Cymru, our major awareness campaign in Wales. We  launched the project at the Senedd, alongside a team of beat members and supporters. Carwyn Jones, Welsh First Minister, was also  in attendance.

beat Cymru will be the first major project in Wales to support people affected by eating disorders, as well as campaigning on their behalf.

We hope the project will provide new volunteering opportunities across Wales, as well as combating the stigma of eating disorders.

Wednesday 24th

Civic Reception

The Lord Mayor of Norwich, Councillor Evelyn Collishaw, invited us to celebrate our birthday with a Civic Reception at Norwich City Hall.

The event was attended by other leading dignitaries, as well as members and supporters of beat. Attendees heard from Susan Ringwood, beat Chief Executive, Nancy Pearce, one of the founders of the Eating Disorders Association, a beat Young Ambassador, and Sir Laurie Magnus, Chair of beat's trustees.

beat is proud to be the only national charity based in the city of Norwich and is honoured to be recognised with this Civic Reception.

Thursday 25th

Promoting services:

We used Thursday to highlight the range of services we provide and celebrate the people who work hard to help us to beat eating disorders. The website was updated throughout the day with information about our different projects and gave people the opportunity to see what we do and how they can get involved.

Friday 26th

National Campaign Day

Friday saw the launch of our first national campaign day. We called on all our members and supporters to attend their local MP's surgery and deliver a copy of our manifesto.

We want you to let us know what you think of the manifesto and how your MP has responded.

Throughout the day we updated our webpages, bringing your updates and stories from the campaign day.

We hope the campaigning can continue throughout the election period, with beat members showing the manifesto to all local campaigners. If you want to get involved, order your campaign pack here