Hi, I’m Larli. I’m a 23-year-old musician from the Hunter region of Australia. In 2021 I received a life-changing scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, where I graduated with a 1st class BMus(Hons) in July this year. I’m especially passionate about new and contemporary music and highlighting disabled composers and artists.

I’ve been a wheelchair user since I was 15, and although it’s been incredibly challenging, my experience of disability has driven and empowered me more than anything else. I am the first woman in a wheelchair to graduate from the RCM, and I’m incredibly passionate about improving the representation of disability and disabled people in music and making the industry more accessible.

I have had my current wheelchair (Bertie) for over 4 years, however things started to go wrong about two years ago. I always managed to fix them well enough (even when my wheel fell off in the middle of the road), however, about four months ago, the frame completely failed and the seat became detached from the rest of the chair. The frame of the chair is now held together by duct tape in multiple places and the seat and is slanted sideways.

Aside from the risk of the chair snapping in two at any point, the angle of the seat and the extra vibrations have massively exacerbated my chronic back and nerve pain as well as the spasticity in my legs. It also feels like rolling through wet cement so I’m completely reliant on my very old and broken smartdrive to get anywhere.

This has hugely impacted my life as I’m unable to get around with my usual level of independence, I can’t exercise in my chair, or even sit in it for longer than an hour without needing to get out and stretch or take painkillers. I’m also conscious of the loud cracking noises coming from the frame and constantly afraid of the day when the tape solution fails and the chair gives out.

Living between two countries is a massive privilege, but, as a disabled person, it makes situations like this almost impossible because neither country is obliged to financially support me. I’ve had a lot of bureaucratic conversations in the last two years but the condensed version is: it is unlikely I will be approved for significant funding anywhere and it will likely take the better part of a year and multiple appeals for a decision to be made either way.

I come from a single-parent home in regional Australia. I struggled to complete my studies, even with my scholarships (and some very kind GoFundMe donors in 4th year!), due to financial challenges, and despite receiving a further scholarship and trying everything I could to get the money together, I had to drop out of my Master’s program before it even started. After graduating, I spent some time at home before returning to London to continue working but was unable to find an accessible place to live or secure enough paid work to support myself so I have to spend the next few months back home sorting things out- this being one of the things.

Wheelchairs are ridiculously expensive. I don’t need anything high-tech or any added extras beyond what is strictly necessary (I’m not even buying new wheels). A suitable wheelchair with no frills will be well over $8,000 aud. On top of this I will need a new cushion ($1000) and likely a new backrest ($1000+).

As it can take months for a chair to arrive after ordering, and my chair could become unusable any day, I need to raise this money urgently so that I can place my order in the first few weeks of the new year.

This chair wouldn’t just save me a lot of pain, anxiety, and hip spasms, it would enable me to keep living independently, travelling, working, performing, applying for funding, and doing all my secret things. In early 2026 I will be launching a project I’ve been working on for a while and I hope later in the year to take up a scholarship on a program that would allow me to develop my specialism in contemporary and new music. I can’t do any of this with a non-functional wheelchair.

I really appreciate any donations, shares, or words of support. I am also very thankful for all the advice, support, help getting up hills, and nice things people have done to make this situation a bit easier. It’s frustrating to have to ask for help buying something so essential and basic as a wheelchair, especially when the world is in such a bad place and so many causes are in need of donations.

As a thank you, if you have donated, send me a message on Instagram (or email me) with a tune/song(any genre) and I will record a short video playing it for you (I can’t promise it will be perfect, but I will try my best!).

If you’re interested in what I do or want to get in contact, I have a website, www.larlibethdavies.com