Community project to help a lady in a desperate situation.

Hi. My name is Helen Mackenzie and I run a scheme called Back to Basics which helps provide families that can’t make ends meet with food ingredients to make a nutritious and thrifty meal. A friend of mine, Karen, got in touch and asked for my help with a lady she used to work with who was living in squalid circumstances. I hate using the term squalid but there is no other word for it. The lady in question suffers from bipolar disease and she wasn’t coping with her situation. In the past she has had two dogs living there that had urinated and defacated on the floors and carpets. One duvet was wringing in urine. The smell was unbearable. We called social services but that yielded nothing. By chance Karen’s neighbour was having a new kitchen fitted. Karen asked for the old one. A post in a local Facebook site called Blow Your Horn Ripon alerted the Ripon public to our need for help and manpower. Mark Pitt ripped out the old kitchen. Rob Urry plastered the ceiling. Sam Weightman fitted the new kitchen. S and O Conversions fitted a new floor that was provided by Howdens. Calvert’s donated a carpet for the lounge. We have made SUCH a difference already. Karen and her husband have cleaned and are starting to decorate. My husband is tiling the bathroom and kitchen window. Tyler Fowler is fitting some doors that were donated as the old ones were horrendous and he has also laid laminate flooring in the bathroom. I sourced a new bed, a fridge freezer, lamps and furniture. It’s starting to feel like a home. The smell is gradually dissipating. And now we have run out of funds and also out of ability. We are two women who are trying our best to help this lady. The lift in her spirits has been palpable although she still has dark days. If you can provide any funds for a new stairway, decorating items, wallpaper, new fencing, a new front and back door as these are rotten - the list goes on. This started as just sorting the kitchen and has developed into sorting the whole house but I truly can’t have anyone sleeping in a room with dog poo on the carpet or living in such squalor. Gus - the man with no surname! - has helped shift things from the house and went every day for months to help get stuff away. Ian Carling has helped with plug sockets and other electrical work. All of these people have either worked for free or for cost because they have realised the desperate nature of the situation. Nobody has judged. They’ve just got on with the job in hand. But we are getting to the stage where we need some funding to help complete the job - maybe some nice plants for the garden too. Karen and I are appealing to the fantastic Ripon community to help us dot the Is and cross the Ts on this project by helping us to finance the last stages. Thank you for reading and please help if you can. If every member of Blow Your Horn gave £1 we would hit our target and more besides. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Helen and Karen xx