Help Michelle become mobile again

Michelle needs help with wheelchair repairs ASAP!

As you all know Michelle has been a wheelchair user been more recent years since the effects of 3 concurrent sepsis infections left her off her medication for many months allowing her rheumatoid arthritis to run wild and take hold of her mobility.

First affecting her legs with a right knee ravaged by sepsis destroying her cartilage and urgently needing a knee replacement, but unable to do so until she is 5 years clear of sepsis as that is where the infection began!

She stands on distorted limbs, both knees bent, hips that won’t allow her legs to straighten and ankles that won’t flex so can only walk on the very rare “good days” a few painful steps around her house but no further!

Her trusty mobility scooter was serving her well the past few years however as it was in constant every day use it has had several repairs to keep it going however it is no longer in good working order, the back end is falling off and held together with cable ties, the battery life is extremely poor and used to get her around for 8 miles but now only does less than 1 which means she is often stranded in public charging the battery just enough to get on the bus and often has to be pushed home meaning going out alone and independently is no longer an option!

Not only this but recent change in her mobility means physically using it causes her pain due to her elbow now suddenly becoming bent at a right angle and her hands more disfigured meaning holding onto the trigger to make the scooter move is difficult and painful, so she resorts to pushing it with her wrist which has caused her to have little crashes into surrounding objects!

Her disfigurements have become very suddenly worse since September meaning she had no option to switch to a powered wheelchair because using her scooter was getting extremely difficult and stressful since she has had to be off her medication since September( meaning the arthritis has run wild once again causing permanent damages)

The reason she is off it all is through years of heavy medication and painkillers her liver has now taken a hit!

Her liver enzymes should be around 30-33 but they have continued to rise(despite being off medications since September) to 146 at the last count!

She is being sent for several different tests to investigate further!

Now hopefully you are still reading!

She decided to finally buy a wheelchair and found the perfect one, lightweight at 26kg and foldable for her tiny home and it does 16 miles before needing a charge and the bonus is that it is pink!

She bought it privately from a lady and was so happy, gave it a little test drive but due to the bumpy road surface it wasn’t a clear picture to test it on but excitement got the better of her and the deal was paid in cash using every penny of her savings along with some money that her friends helped her raise through doing tarot readings!

She started to teach her left hand to use the controls as her right hand is too weak and was loving her new independence however it was short lived!

On her first journey it was very difficult to get it to steer to the left the wheel wasn’t moving freely, so her husband fitted it with new bearings and she noticed the front wheel bar was bent so went to the original retailer of the chair for advice and he recommended new front end assembly pieces and had them fitted, this made very little difference to rectify the problem despite the parts costing £150!

The chair became so dangerous she can not use it, to quote her recent Facebook status:

“in the last 4 weeks I’ve been thrown off the kerb 6 times, off the edge of a bus ramp, swung into the road several times and one occasion nearly hit by a bus!

Now more than ever she needs that chair to make important hospital appointments and her weekly blood tests!

She has now become extremely anxious of going out!

She contacted the retailer again and gone through in detail with pictures etc and the parts she needs for the wheelchair that is now an old model of 7 years older are not compatible with newer parts!

The only option is to buy all new electrics and fit them to the old frame which is essentially making it a brand new wheelchair again eliminating chasing good money after bad constantly buying new parts.....however the parts alone will cost £670!

Bills are being unpaid just to try and pay for these repairs but that will just cause further stress when these then need paying... Any amount would be appreciated if anyone can spare anything