Four years ago I lost two jobs in the same year, the first one “on cost grounds” (I was directly replaced by someone who was paid substantially more than me), and the second one because a senior manager chose to take a sabbatical and wanted to do the work I’d been hired to do herself when she came back. After a few months of being told by other prospective employers I “was too good”, “wouldn’t enjoy it here”, hadn’t worn a yellow fez on an August Tuesday in 1997 so unfortunately aren’t qualified for this particular role but please check our vacancies page regularly, and just good old-fashioned ghosting, I lost my home and everything I owned. Since then I’ve been moving around, living under the same roof as drug addicts, alcoholics and violent ex-cons.

This fundraiser can’t magic me out of this situation, which is controlled entirely by other people. But I have had stagnant credit card debt for the last four years, and live most of the month in my overdraft. Every month a quarter of my UC goes on the minimum credit card payment, then most of what I’ve paid reappears as interest, and the rest of it comes back when I need to use my card for food at the end of the month. The bank has helped in the past by pausing the interest, but this has barely made a dent, and for most months in the last two years I’ve been going to the same two people for help at the end of the month. It’s not a sustainable way of having friends and just contributes to the same debt cycle.

Contributing to this fundraiser will help me pay off this balance and stop me having to rely on the same friends who have given me so much, financially and emotionally, over the last few years. January is always the longest month, where it seems like payday is three years away, but anything you can give would be appreciated.