Frequently Asked Questions

<span style="font-size: 19px;">My MS Walk is a virtual event that challenges you to complete a walk of any distance, at your own pace, in any location you like. You can get out there as much as you need to clock up your miles over the challenge. This is your MS Walk, your way. </span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Complete the challenge in days, weeks or months. The finish time doesn’t matter. It’s about raising vital funds to help stop MS.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">If you signed up but wish to take part later in the year, just let us know so we can carry on to support you.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">No you don’t - you can walk, roll or stroll your distance or do a mixture of all three! We advise you to do whatever is within your ability but is still challenging for you. Making sure it is enough of a challenge means people will be more likely to sponsor you.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Signing up for My MS Walk is free! It's a challenge though, so we do encourage you to fundraise to help fund our life-saving research.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">There’s no age limit for My MS Walk and we welcome people of all ages. However, you need to be over 18 years old to register. If you’re under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to sign up on your behalf. </span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">JustGiving is an online fundraising platform which you can use to collect your donations. Your fundraising page will be set up automatically when you sign up for My MS Walk. To access your page go to the JustGiving website and enter the log in details you supplied when you signed up. If you signed up online, your confirmation email will also have a link to your page. You can share your page with friends and family to encourage them to donate to your challenge</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">If you need help using your fundraising page, making a donation, or anything else JustGiving related, their dedicated support team can help you out. You can message JustGiving through their </span> <a href="https://help.justgiving.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?preview_as_role=anonymous" target="_BLANK" style="font-size: 19px;">contact form</a> <span style="font-size: 19px;">if you need any help or can’t find what you’re looking for. Alternatively, check out the</span><a href="https://help.justgiving.com/hc/en-us" target="_BLANK" style="font-size: 19px;"> JustGiving FAQ</a>. <span style="font-size: 19px;">And you can also call us on 01382 279 378.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Please email us at</span> <a href="mailto:mswalk@mssociety.org.uk" target="_BLANK" style="font-size: 19px;>mswalk@mssociety.org.uk</a> <span style="font-size: 19px;">to tell us about any problems you’re having. Or you can call 01382 279378 and a member of our events team will be able to help you.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">We’re here to support you on your journey for My MS Walk. We’ll be in touch with emails to give you inspiration, motivation, top tips and fundraising resources and ideas. You can access all this information on our website, and get advice from other My MS Walkers on our</span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/uk.mswalk/" target="_BLANK" style="font-size: 19px;">Facebook group.</a>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Strava is a training app which tracks and records your distance. JustGiving is partnered with Strava which means you can</span> <a href="https://help.justgiving.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007215857-Connecting-your-Fundraising-Page-to-Strava" target="_BLANK" style="font-size: 19px;">link your fundraising page to Strava</a> <span style="font-size: 19px;">and your page will be updated every time you complete a walk. That way, your donors can see how you’re getting on. Fundraisers who use this feature raise an average 46% more!</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">If it’s linked to your fundraising page, we’ll know about any of the miles you complete using your fitness app.  You just need to let us know about the rest of them by manually updating your fundraising page. Just remember: don’t manually log any miles that you’ve used a fitness app to track, as we’ll already have those logged.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">If you don’t want to use a fitness app, you can still easily keep track of your miles through your fundraising page. You can do this by manually updating your JustGiving fundraising page. Firstly, make sure you're logged in, then you will see a 'log fitness' button on your fundraising page. Click on this and you'll be able to add your fitness manually on your fundraising page for all your supporters to see!</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Yes! Once you've signed up please</span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/uk.mswalk/" style="font-size: 19px;">join our Facebook group</a> <span style="font-size: 19px;">to chat with other people taking part in My MS Walk.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">As My MS Walk is a challenge to raise money for us, we encourage all participants to fundraise. The money raised from My MS Walk will help fund our life saving research, so every mile matters. </span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">As soon as you sign up to your challenge your fundraising page will be created for you. It’s simple! All income is transferred directly to us. You’ll be able to share your progress on Facebook and Twitter too. And we’ll also provide fundraising tips and support throughout your journey.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">There’s no minimum fundraising amount. However, we encourage you to make the most of your challenge by asking your friends and family for sponsorship to help us fund even more life-changing research. And it’s a good idea to set yourself a fundraising target on your JustGiving fundraising page to keep you motivated.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">We love Gift Aid as it means we can claim 25p on every £1 donation, at no extra cost to you or your supporters. For UK taxpayers JustGiving allows your supporters to automatically Gift Aid their donation. Or people can simply tick the Gift Aid box on your sponsorship form (included in the post).</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">However, not all donations are eligible for Gift Aid. We can only claim Gift Aid on personal donations. So if your supporters receive any goods or a service in return for a donation, we unfortunately can’t claim. For example, any donations from raffles, lotteries, sweepstakes, ticket sales, auctions or bake sales would not be eligible for Gift Aid. For more information, visit our Gift Aid page.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Ask people to donate directly to your fundraising page. That way, the money will come to us automatically.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">If you’ve collected cash then you can pay in the money to your fundraising page using a credit or debit card.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Please contact </span><a href="mailto:mswalk@mssociety.org.uk" target="_blank" style="font-size: 19px;">mswalk@mssociety.org.uk</a> <span style="font-size: 19px;">if you’d like to send us a cheque.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">If you’re making an offline donation please fill out a sponsorship form and tick the Gift Aid box.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">You should pay in your donations by 31 December 2021. For those who have raised £50 and above, you'll also receive a MS Society shirt. And if you raise £100 and above you’ll receive a My MS Walk medal!</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">The money you raise will go to our ground-breaking Stop MS Appeal. It’s aiming to raise £100 million over 10 years to fund vital MS research and take us even closer to finally stopping MS. For more information on the Stop MS Appeal head to mssociety.org.uk/stopms.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Everyone who raises £50 or more on their My MS Walk fundraising page will receive a MS Walk t-shirt to say thank you. Your t-shirt will be posted to you within a month of you finishing your challenge.</span>

<span style="font-size: 19px;">Everyone who raises £100 or more on their My MS Walk fundraising page will receive a special medal to say thank you. Your medal will be posted to you within a month of you finishing your challenge.</span>