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Help me get out when I get stuck!!

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My name is Laura D. I’m a wheelchair user living in a first floor apartment which I love. The only thing is when the only lift breaks I can’t help feeling like a targeted (because no one else in the building seems to have this problem - ie I’m the only wheelchair user) and end up being a sitting duck not able to go out:- endangering any person who is willing to carry me down 2 flights of stairs! (Which is usually my brother - and after a number of years of doing this it’s damaged his back)

It means and that I miss work, important appointments that I have to reschedule,  going out to meet and socialise with people and it limits me to what I can do in a day - something simple like popping out to get something to eat/cook, or go to the gym to exercise. 

I have to sit indoors and wait to the discretion of the housing association which will remain unnamed - to outsource to a lift repair company to then fix the problem- all the while I’m kept out of the loop (without actively pestering them to give me any information) 

If I felt there was a way to go down stairs independently without harming myself or others, given my strength and faitgue levels, I think I would have been able to think of it. The obvious thing being stronger to manoeuvre up stairs myself - I know some super humans capable of this... but I’m just me... nothing special or  super human about me!

It is a lot of money, but I want to buy an S Sella Max Stairclimber or something similar that work in the same way - and these things are expensive - the amount stated for my campaign is a quote that AAT a company designed for Stairclimbers and access accessories gave me last year. Given the nature of how long it’s been prices may have gone up depending also on my increased health needs.


I hear you ask, why don’t your housing association help? 

As far as I’m aware - they've told me it is too great a cost for an unlikely event (which now has occurred three or four times this year, and countless others in the 10 years I’ve been living at this property - on days where I had to work or for instance in recent times when I missed out on a sharing of work that is quite close to my heart- having consulted on it and I missed a session of a project I’m working on with an older person's group to promote wellbeing) 

What if there is a fire? You ask? This building has a Staying in policy - I.e. I must stay out and close all the doors and windows in a safe room away from the fire and call 999/emergency to help me out. 

But as a relatively active (or aspiring to be) wheelchair user, it really puts a strain on my day, physically and emotionally, workwise and socially. 

Its been an an incredibly frustrating problem over the past 10 years and to be fair I’m not getting any younger and I’m less likely to risk my own life and that of others in order to get out of my flat - as I may have done in the past.

It is a large amount of money which I can’t source alone even if I work all the hours in the day - which I wouldn’t be able to do if the lift wasn’t working! 

The Cost of a unit can range from £4,000 - £8,000 including all the accessories needed to make it functional and the maintenance of the machine. 

It is one that I could transfer onto, or stay in my chair and be taken up or downstairs using the technology to be able to control my weight and that of the chair, without damaging the person assisting me down and essentially holding all of my weight completely and trying to balance and manoeuvre shallow steps and a second flight of stairs.

I am not putting all my hopes and relying completely on the donations of others in this campaign (and I’d be trying to save in order to pay for it myself) but I would really appreciate any help with this, as it feels really unfair that because if a communal fixture in a building, that is my only way of entering/exiting the building fails - It largely and negatively impacts my daily living activities.

i don’t mean to pull the sympathy card here, but isn’t it enough that I have a chronic condition, one leg and am bound to a wheelchair indefinitely? Surely I should be Given the choice of being able to leave my home as and when I please? 

I would appreciate any any help with this:- a donation, a shout out, sharing in social media, raising awareness. I’d be ever grateful if I could reach this target so I can continue to live my life without being subject to worry and stress about something I have no control over! 

Any contribution would be enabling me to to take control of my life more, and ensuring that I can keep to commitments that I make - work or personal-wise as much as is possible and also helping any person, helping me. Money collected would go directly to the cost of a stairclimber that could be operated by another person without risk to them or me.

Thank you you so much for taking the time to read this. I hope I can count on your support, in whatever manner you are able to do so.

Organizer

Laura Dajao
Organizer
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