Fighting FND - Help for Lily
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Lily's Battle with Functional Neurological Disorder
My name is Melanie Thomas, I live in Melbourne, Australia. My husband and I have known Lily's mum Sarah for 28 years (we went to high school together) and Sarah is a very dear friend. Lily, Sarah and Jake (Lily's brother) are in desperate need of financial help. Sarah is on her own with her two children and has had to take a year off work as Lily is extremely ill and requires 24/7 care.
Any funds raised in this Go Fund Me campaign will be used to pay for all of the different medicines Lily requires daily. It will also assist to pay the very expensive parking fees and petrol for her regular hospital visits and the cost of specialist treatment such as her weekly Neurologist appointments. It will help to pay for Lily's twice weekly physiotherapy sessions which she will hopefully be able to begin again soon, she will also require ongoing specialised therapy and eventually counselling to assist in her long recovery. Funds raised will also help to provide food and pay for other living expenses while Sarah is unable to work.
All donations will be processed by Go Fund Me and deposited directly in to Sarah's account.
Sarah is suffering effects from all of the terrible stress and financial strain she has been under and we offered to set this campaign up for her, Lily and Jake to try and ease some of their financial worry. She is a beautiful and giving person and we as her friends have chosen to help and are simply doing everything we can to assist her and her children financially.
This is Lily's story:
Beautiful 18 year old Lily had an operation for appendicitis in November 2016, it was later revealed that her appendix had burst and Lily became septic. Since this complication Lily’s health deteriorated severely and she has been unable to lead any semblance of a normal life since.
She started suffering severe non-epileptic seizures, sometimes lasting for hours. This has been attributed to a condition called Functional Neurological Disorder for which there is currently little understanding and no cure. She also suffered a significant traumatic event while in hospital which has worsened the effects of her condition.
The constant and brutal seizures have completely debilitated her and she was unable to finish school like her peers. She learnt to walk again only the week before she was able to attend her formal.
Lily has been close to death and in ICU a few times as her body just starts to shut down. The seizures have left her paralysed, mute and only able to communicate at times with her eyes by blinking. She was diagnosed with a tumour in her chest which they were told was a 90% chance of being cancerous. She was lucky to be part of the 10% where the tumour turned out to be benign, it does however need to be monitored.
Some of her hospital stays have lasted months and she has had to learn how to walk again numerous times. She is unable to eat normally at the moment and is being fed through a feeding tube.
She had high hopes for her future and was even thinking of studying medicine. She is now happy to get through a day without having a series of seizures.
She recently suddenly stopped breathing and was rushed to hospital by ambulance where her condition was life threatening, she continued to have a series of seizures which lasted an exhausting and terrifying nine hours. She currently needs 24/7 care and will require extensive and long term therapy to get well again.
There are many other very sad aspects of Lily’s illness which I would like to refrain from elaborating on out of respect for Lily.
I have permission from Lily and her mum Sarah to share their story.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read Lily's story.
Melanie Thomas & Family
My name is Melanie Thomas, I live in Melbourne, Australia. My husband and I have known Lily's mum Sarah for 28 years (we went to high school together) and Sarah is a very dear friend. Lily, Sarah and Jake (Lily's brother) are in desperate need of financial help. Sarah is on her own with her two children and has had to take a year off work as Lily is extremely ill and requires 24/7 care.
Any funds raised in this Go Fund Me campaign will be used to pay for all of the different medicines Lily requires daily. It will also assist to pay the very expensive parking fees and petrol for her regular hospital visits and the cost of specialist treatment such as her weekly Neurologist appointments. It will help to pay for Lily's twice weekly physiotherapy sessions which she will hopefully be able to begin again soon, she will also require ongoing specialised therapy and eventually counselling to assist in her long recovery. Funds raised will also help to provide food and pay for other living expenses while Sarah is unable to work.
All donations will be processed by Go Fund Me and deposited directly in to Sarah's account.
Sarah is suffering effects from all of the terrible stress and financial strain she has been under and we offered to set this campaign up for her, Lily and Jake to try and ease some of their financial worry. She is a beautiful and giving person and we as her friends have chosen to help and are simply doing everything we can to assist her and her children financially.
This is Lily's story:
Beautiful 18 year old Lily had an operation for appendicitis in November 2016, it was later revealed that her appendix had burst and Lily became septic. Since this complication Lily’s health deteriorated severely and she has been unable to lead any semblance of a normal life since.
She started suffering severe non-epileptic seizures, sometimes lasting for hours. This has been attributed to a condition called Functional Neurological Disorder for which there is currently little understanding and no cure. She also suffered a significant traumatic event while in hospital which has worsened the effects of her condition.
The constant and brutal seizures have completely debilitated her and she was unable to finish school like her peers. She learnt to walk again only the week before she was able to attend her formal.
Lily has been close to death and in ICU a few times as her body just starts to shut down. The seizures have left her paralysed, mute and only able to communicate at times with her eyes by blinking. She was diagnosed with a tumour in her chest which they were told was a 90% chance of being cancerous. She was lucky to be part of the 10% where the tumour turned out to be benign, it does however need to be monitored.
Some of her hospital stays have lasted months and she has had to learn how to walk again numerous times. She is unable to eat normally at the moment and is being fed through a feeding tube.
She had high hopes for her future and was even thinking of studying medicine. She is now happy to get through a day without having a series of seizures.
She recently suddenly stopped breathing and was rushed to hospital by ambulance where her condition was life threatening, she continued to have a series of seizures which lasted an exhausting and terrifying nine hours. She currently needs 24/7 care and will require extensive and long term therapy to get well again.
There are many other very sad aspects of Lily’s illness which I would like to refrain from elaborating on out of respect for Lily.
I have permission from Lily and her mum Sarah to share their story.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read Lily's story.
Melanie Thomas & Family
Organizer
Melanie Thomas
Organizer
Devon Meadows VIC
