Help Hayley get a Life Changing Wheelchair
Imagine that you wake up one day and your entire life turns upside down in a heartbeat. That you are capable in mind but your body betrays you at every turn. That you sit inside a cream painted room almost everyday, watching the outside world moving at full speed without you. Yet you are stuck inside unable to physically go where you want to. This is how best to describe my life.
I am Hayley, a 33 year old disabled woman in Sussex. An avid conservationist, an ex-rambler and forager with no means to enjoy this aspect of my life anymore. I am, in every sense of the word, a shell of my former self.
In early 2018, I became very sick and didn't get better. One morning I couldn't walk at all and my partner Adam, had to take me to A & E. I was already diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome at the age of 20 and unable to conceive but that wasn't the end of my nightmare. I have since been diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions including severe Fibromyalgia, Erythromelalgia, Vestibular Migraine, Restless Legs Syndrome and Sleep Apnoea. I have bowel incontinence and breathing difficulties which are still under investigation. Each of these conditions have there own set of symptoms ranging from severe pain every single day that feels like burning acid running down my spine with no relief to vertigo and memory loss. It feels as if at some point by body stopped working properly and everything fell out of sync.
Alongside the physical there are the mental health issues, like recurring clinical depression, social and generalised anxiety and PTSD from domestic and sexual violence throughout my life. After becoming physically disabled it didn't take long for me to end up in the crisis team. Being mostly stuck indoors with the mind of a PTSD sufferer and no outlet (which used to be my nature walking), does not result in a happy or safe environment. Typing it out feels almost like it doesn't truly show the extent of how my daily life is. An example could be that my partner has to wash my hair for for me because I am too fatigued to do it myself or that I barely sleep screaming in pain and crying for some relief. The truth is much more horrific.
All of this combined makes my life a living nightmare, with no cure or any real help with managing my symptoms. I have had doctors tell me that "I need to stop trying to help myself because there is no cure and I won't get better". I've been told "sorry there just isn't anything we can do" more times than I can count. I am not one to shy away or to just accept everything that is happening.
I am reaching out to anyone that might listen to help me to raise funds for an all terrain powered wheelchair. It will give me my independence, freedom and severely improve my quality of life. Almost everything that I love and enjoy has it's basis in nature. Whether that is walking, rambling, foraging, botanical art, nature photography and the list goes on. I lost all of my hobbies and passions overnight.
My photography and picture of me from many years ago before disability.
The chair I'm crowdfunding for is a Mountain E-trike and is very much at the lower end of the pricing market for a folding all terrain chair with power assist. The cost of the chair with a higher back seat and push handle comes to £7550 total. Please watch the video below to show you how much the chair has helped others and how it will change my life (permission has been given to use the footage).
I ask you wonderful and generous people to consider my story. I beg you to share this with as many as you can far and wide and if you can please donate. I do not want anyone to donate if they cannot, but sharing it far and wide will help. If 7550 people can donate just £1 each it will change my life forever. I ask you to consider how your life would be if someone took away everything that you loved and were passionate about?
Thank you for reading.
Hayley x
P.S Any funds donated above the goal amount, although incredible, will be donated to Sussex Wildlife Trust to aid in their conservation efforts.
