Hi. My name is Eli, most of you know me as AcademicType. A few years ago, my mother was diagnosed with an acute vitamin B-12 deficiency following several years of slowly declining physical health, an inability to walk for long distances, consistent back pain, and an on and off again brain fog.

This confirmed something I had already suspected at that point, which is that she would be unable to work for the foreseeable future, leaving me as the sole earner for the two of us, relying on my job as a bottom level employee at a certain famous fast food chain, something I got in part out of desperation to begin with after I was unable to sit my GCSE’s during Covid.

And to be honest, it’s been borderline impossible to make all of our ends meet for quite some time now. There’s a part of me that’s disgusted to even admit that to people I know personally, but what good is that kind of pride. It’s the truth. We’re struggling, on all fronts. A lot. A couple months ago my mum revived results from a blood test that referred her to a cardiologist after revealing that she has heart disease. To what extent, we don’t quite know yet. But it’s only made her chances of going back to work slimmer, especially given the stressful nature of her work, which used to be in the medical sector. Some days things get really dark. I can barely function myself. I’ll come home from work and wonder what the point of struggling on is. I think about what would be easier. Then I drag myself out of bed the next day, increasingly later into the day, and repeat the cycle. It’s hard to describe the omnipresent pressure I’m under and the ways it manifests mentally…

Now, primarily, this fundraiser is to cover our outstanding rent debt which has built up over time (we are also in debt to our water company but they have yet to escalate). We’ve received several letters from our landlord and the most recent one has accounted their intent to seek legal action if we don’t pay them what we owe. I’m not gonna lie, it’s scary. I’ve been sleeping alot less than I should be. The stress of constantly balancing on a knife’s edge eats away at you, and so it’s with a small amount of shame and a fair amount of desperation that I’ve set up this fundraiser. Anything you can give would be greatly appreciated, that includes just sharing this with people who might be able to help… honestly it’s hard to formulate the exact words for this part. What can I say, help? Not enough. Then too much floods into my head and I’m left again unable to write anything. Ugh. Well. I think I’ve said enough. Thank you for at least reading to the end.