[Joe McManus]

Here are the details telling you exactly how you can influence your chance of winning one of the prizes!

What can you win?

As a long-time customer of CPAP-Europe.com I've secured some items from their great range of products. In return for mentioning their CPAP shop (if you've never visited them before, check them out now!) a few times through-out this competition, they've been kindly willing to donate some prizes for the UK CPAP community.

So here are the prizes:

1. One high-end CPAP Mask worth up to £129.95 - you pick the model, you pick the size. Up to and including the Comfort Curve and Comfort Lite 2. If you win this and don't fancy any of those two, you are welcome to pick a cheaper model.
2. One mid-range CPAP Mask worth up to £119.95. As above, you pick the one you want. Up to the Comfort Full, it's your choice.
3. One basic CPAP Mask worth up to £109.95. This includes all entry-level masks including the very popular Comfort Gel. If you prefer the Profile Lite or Comfort Classic you can go for one of those instead.

That's a great chance for you to get your hands on one of the latest Respironics CPAP masks, secure a good back-up option for your current mask as a spare or one you can leave at the holiday home at the beach!

And if that's not enough, CPAP-Europe will also give away an extra prize:

4. A Marsona 1288A Sound Conditioner worth £119.95 - your partner will like this one. Mix together your own choice of ambient sounds to make a change for that air pump all night long! Also great for covering the neighbour's snoring

And an extra bonus:

5. A £25 Amazon Gift Voucher which will come in handy this holiday season

Total value: £504.80

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How can you win?

Throughout the month of October, every contribution you make to the CPAP Forums will score you a certain amount of points. The amount of points you accumulate will determine your win chance. The odds of being pulled out of the hat depends on how large your contribution is out of the total amount of points awarded to all members throughout the month.

For example: If you have 100 points and the forum's grand total is 1000, you have 1 in 10 chance of being pulled out of the hat. That way everybody has a chance of winning, proportionate to their efforts! And the more you contribute, the more chance you have to win.

We will only award one prize per winner and we'll start with the top prize. You have to live in the UK or ROI to be eligible for winning one of the prizes. I will painstakingly score every contribution and do the draw on November 1st. Prize winners will be contacted by Private Message and asked to confirm their delivery address within one month.

Scoring & How Can You Contribute?

We've had some great CPAP and Sleep Apnoea related conversations here in the forums since launch a few months back. This competition is aimed to continue that trend. So you get points for writing new threads and make replies to other people's posts. To help you get started, here is a list of specific items which you can score points with:

1 Point for Quality Posts/Replies - with Quality I mean those that just say 'Yes, I agree' or 'Great post' will not be counted. A good reply generally consists of at least two sentences and addresses one or more points raised by the topic starter.

2 Points for Quality New Threads/Topics - Quality here means that the new thread has to be relevant to the topic of CPAP, Sleep, Snoring, Sleep Disorders, Sleep Apnoea or Health in general. Happy birthday shout-outs won't be included.

3 Points for an in-depth Product Review - Doesn't matter which make, model or brand nor how old it is. You can score with a detailed anti-snoring or preferably CPAP product. Pictures and illustrations welcome! 3 Decent paragraphs minimum. Where did you get it? Easy to use? How would you improve it? How much did it cost? Etc.

5 Points for Referrals - Know someone who uses CPAP? Persuade them to sign up here! When they sign up they can put you down as a referrer. If they go on to make at least a few decent posts, you will score! You can also send someone a link to this forum like this: "Hi [friend's name] check out this forum to pick up some tips about your CPAP machine: http://forums.cpap.co.uk/index.php?referrerid=JOHNSMITH I'm on there too as JOHNSMITH, see you there!" Change the JOHNSMITH part to your forum name and the system will automatically pick up on this referral.

4 Points for Sleep Test Testimonial / Hospital experience review - Write at least 4 decent paragraphs about your sleep lab experience so people new to sleep apnoea can read your experience and be comforted to know it's not all that scary. Explain PSG, which hospital, how long for the results, how the night went etc.

3 Points for Before & After Article - Remember the days before CPAP? Fall asleep at the wheel or mid-conversation? Share the horror-stories and compare them with 'after'. How did CPAP change your live? And your partner's?

5 Points for Blogging with Link - Have a blog or website? Write a post about the CPAP forums or any other part of cpap.co.uk along with a link and some feedback to score 5 points. Limited to 3 per member! PM me when your blog post is live.

10 Points for Posting Video on YouTube and Starting a Thread about it - A whopping 10 points if you dare to grab the camera, make a mini-documentary (30 seconds at least) of you and your CPAP equipment and sticking it on YouTube. Then start a new topic here on the forums to point us to your film. Your forum handle has to be written or spoken in the film so we know it's actually you

3 Points for Uploading a Photo of You and Your CPAP - Show off your gear (or your PJs) in a sexy pose. Just your set-up will do too. You can upload it to the forums when you start a new topic.

2 Points for your Top Tip - found a unique way of cleaning your gear? Chopped a hole in your headboard to accommodate the tube? Know where to get filters on the cheap? Any super foods that made you instantly loose pounds? Any Top Tip related to CPAP, Snoring or OSA will score 2 points!

2 Points for CPAP whilst travelling story - How did the airline treat you? Did you use a battery? Did your machine work on 110V out of the box? Did you ever travel without and had a horrible time?

3 Points for driving/DVLA story - Score with your feedback on Sleep Apnoea vs driving and how your experience was with the DVLA.

3 Points for getting a spouse/child/family member to write about what OSA & CPAP means to them - you quote someone you know on how you getting diagnosed with SA and prescribed CPAP affected their lives.

3 Points for Linking to and discussing your favourite Sleep/OSA/CPAP related website(s) - Add a little review. What makes it so great? What would you change? How did you first find this site? How often do you visit and why?

4 Points for Linking to OSA related Journal/Article and discussing it - A bit more technical this one. If you find a great journal or bit of research related to our favourite topic, start a new thread about it, link to it and discuss your views.


Those are just some ideas to get you started but anything goes really. Sharing your experiences is of great help to future patients who can read all about Sleep Apnoea and CPAP right here. Right at the start of this competition we have 87 Threads/Topics and 379 Posts/Replies. Let's aim for 250 & 1000 by the end of the month!

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And the rally starts..... Now! Happy posting everyone!

If you have any questions, Private Message me or post below!

Thanks to CPAP-Europe.com for the great prizes!

[JackTheSnorer]

Originally Posted by CPAP.co.uk Admin

And the rally starts..... Now! Happy posting everyone!

Oh no! I wasted two days!

OK so if I write all my experiences, tips, reviews etc. I can win stuff? That's jolly good that is, I better get on it.

[Joe McManus]

Originally Posted by JackTheSnorer

OK so if I write all my experiences, tips, reviews etc. I can win stuff?

Yes! That's exactly it. Spill the beans, bare it all.

[MoutheBreather]

Only contributions since October 1st count, right?

[Joe McManus]

Originally Posted by MoutheBreather

Only contributions since October 1st count, right?

Yes, that's right. That way all started with a clean slate from the announcement onwards.

There's still plenty of scope to influence your winning odds by writing up quality posts here.

[Joe McManus]

"Right at the start of this competition we have 87 Threads/Topics and 379 Posts/Replies."

So far so good, we now have 101 Threads/Topics and 480 Posts/Replies making this the busiest/most active CPAP/Sleep Apnoea forum in Europe that I know of.

With just under two weeks left, I expect plenty more contributions from those looking to bag one of the prizes.

At a glance, the following members seem to be contenders with an above-average chance of winning:

MoutheBreather
JackTheSnorer
mart9012
katiemcewan
puffin
Laurence
Ashley
chelseauk

SteveW, stuart, Rhoobarb2005, PowerNapper, Billy65, IanBeddow, Sleepy, wombat and TheBigFella are only just a few posts behind the above so if you are among those names and wish to add a mask to your kit-bag, go and post some of your experiences, hints and tips to increase your chance of winning during the draw at the end of this month.

[JackTheSnorer]

I've got some more coming up, just wait until sport-on-TV-season is over

[mart9012]

Wow, and I though that none of my posts would qualify.. I gotta say I can talk for England...!

Ok I shall get busy.. lols

[Joe McManus]

Puffin has just set a high standard for video contributions:

http://forums.cpap.co.uk/showthread.php?t=136

Who fancies trying to come up with something similar?

[JackTheSnorer]

Yeah, that was so good it will take some vision and skill to top that effort!

How do we actually get a picture on here? I might be able to get that done but need some help with the technical webby parts.