Funding the Aftermath of a Life-Altering Injury

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Hello everyone,

My name is Charlene, and I am fundraising on behalf of my mother, Ailish.

My mother has battled serious health issues for many years. Since she was 19, she has lived with an autoimmune disease called sarcoidosis that has flared up repeatedly. She underwent surgery to repair hernias, which unfortunately was botched, leading to several life-threatening operations. These operations were only partly successful and left her with a severe decline in health.

Over time, she developed trigeminal neuralgia, and photophobia, causing chronic, debilitating migraines that affect her entire body and significantly reduce her quality of life. Throughout all these challenges, I have watched her health fluctuate time and time again. She always fought hard and tried to make the best of things.

Sadly, in 2019, everything changed. After years of suffering, Ailish sustained a neck injury that appears incurable. Since then, she has endured chronic pain and lives a disabled life, completely reliant on our family for daily tasks she once did independently.

Basic activities like tying her shoes, making a cup of tea, or opening a door are now impossible for her. Her chronic pain is overwhelming and if she pushes herself too far, she falls into episodes of weaknesses like she did in the first years after the injury. Medical professionals are at a loss, diagnosing her with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), or Pain Hypersensitivity Disorder, neither with a cure, both ongoing pain syndromes. We have been advised simply to make her life as comfortable as possible, which is disheartening.

We’re at a point where medically, there is no real progress, and life just keeps going. As her children, my brothers and I are doing our best to care for her, but we won’t be around forever. My father, who’s a cancer survivor with his own health problems, one majorly being chronic pain, most likely won’t be able to care for her on his own at some point. Both my parents are living with conditions way beyond their years, and it’s just not fair. The reality is that our family needs help.

This fundraiser aims to cover the costs of making modifications to my parents’ home and possibly help find medical treatments for my mother, or fund for future additional care. This could include motorised blinds and drawers, automatic doors, accessible bathrooms, smart home devices to control switches, and other adaptations to improve her quality of life and independence.

What might seem like small design features to some could mean the world to my mother, a chance to live with some dignity in her own home, the chance to have some independence and comfort again.

Please help us give her some peace and a better quality of life at home. Any donation, no matter how small, will make a difference and be deeply appreciated.

If you have any questions or wish to reach out, you can contact me at the email address linked with this account, set up specifically for this fundraiser.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for any support you can provide. If you can donate, it's deeply appreciated, please share Ailish's story, every Instagram story, Facebook post, or WhatsApp message helps us get closer to our goal.

Warm regards,

Charlene