On November 30th, our next Awareness Matchday took place during the match between Hamburger SV and VFB Stuttgart. As part of this, we informed visitors about ME/CFS at an information booth. We were also able to conduct a stadium interview before the game. In collaboration with the ME/CFS Research Foundation, we also launched a fundraising campaign for this match day. At a designated spot (“Ankerplatz”), we and the fans had the opportunity to leave wishes about what should change in the way our diseases are handled in the society.
We are particularly thankful that we were able to carry out the first-ever team walk-out action as a sign for ME/CFS patients. The HSV captain for this game, Nicolas Capaldo, walked onto the field with a pair of shoes instead of a walk-out child to symbolize the absence of children affected by ME/CFS. This was explained by DAZN and thus also drew the attention of television viewers to the campaign.
We would like to thank all the helpers on site, the ME/CFS Research Foundation for co-planning the action, Nordtribüne e. V. and the Fan Project for the support on site, the Hamburger SV for making this action matchday possible and all the media outlets which made our awareness matchday visible.
