Enable me to get essential surgery on my shoulder

Hi I'm Rosa, a full time climate activist in desperate need of a shoulder surgery. 

In 2011, I dislocated my shoulder on a school trip, no doctors were unable to relocate it due to my Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. This turned my life on its head. I had to retire from gymnastics, where I was competing nationally and change all priorities in life. 

At 18, 3 years later, after no improvements, I was referred to have surgery which failed badly. I was left in massive amounts of pain, on a cocktail of opiates and other meds. I was also in a sling, needed a wheelchair to get around, and had to drop out of school and not complete my A-Levels that year, and required a full time carer for months. 

After 7 years of medical appointments, no doctor was able to relocate my shoulder: meaning I was still in a sling and in huge amounts of pain - with few signs of progress. By this point I was living in Australia with the sole intention of focussing on my shoulder and health. I saw an excellent Pain Specialist who referred me to a procedure I had never come across: "Pulsed Radio-Frequency into the Suprascapular Nerve". This procedure worked like nothing had before, and drastically reduced my pain - so much so that I was finally able to get out of the sling and finally make some progress in physiotherapy. Without being dramatic - this changed my life.  

Unfortunately, these effects only last about a year - then the nerves have repaired themselves and I am back heading towards the bad pain I was living with prior. Therefore I've been having them yearly in Australia. 

In March 2023, I returned to the UK to engage in civil resistance with Just Stop Oil. I was unable to continue seeing the effects of climate collapse first hand, and realised no amount of work that I could be doing in Australia would be a proportionate response to how bad our situation is. I had to return to England and risk arrest. 

This was a terrifying prospect for me from a health perspective - I had to abandon my safety net of doctors and physios and surgeons that I had grown to trust. Upon arriving in the UK, I have been trying to follow up with an orthopaedic surgeon to work out how I will continue with these yearly procedures to avoid me returning to a sling and potentially bed bound. Unfortunately, NHS waiting times are currently so long that I am still waiting for even my first appointment. 

I am supporting the work of Just Stop Oil full time, living off £500 p/m after rent and bills. This means I am too financially stretched to fund myself through the private system to get the surgery that I am so desperately in need of by November 1st 2023. The private system is the only place I have found it possible. I have found a Doctor who can provide me with the surgery, but just one appointment costs £250, and the surgery itself is looking to be £2500+. I may need follow up appointments to review, as well as additional medication. 

I was considering giving up, and returning to Australia to continue with my shoulder treatment. However, I could not morally do that - particularly after Rishi Sunak announced the government will be granting many new oil and gas extraction licence. 

I have always struggled with asking for help but it is at this point that I have no other way to be able to continue organising and acting against our governments' crimes without paying to have this procedure. 

Your donation means that I can continue to work with Just Stop Oil, avoiding dramatic decline and pain rendering me unable to do much at all. 

Any amount of donation is hugely appreciated and would make an unexplainable difference to my life; someone who has been suffering with this disability for almost 13 years. 

Thank you for your support, 

Love Rosa