Support a sole person who's desperate to make it.

Hi.. I'm going to be honest, I never thought I'd be sat here writing one of these because of the whole 'a man must provide' stigma that often holds you back and stops you reaching out for assistance.

If you like 'story time'-esque reads and want to sit and admire how tragic my story has been since 2022, you're in for a treat.

It's felt over the past 2 years like there's no sign in catching any form of 'break'.

I moved back in with my parents in late 2023, pre-maturely due to my best-friend of 10+ years deciding that he valued a girl that he met and knew for 2 weeks more than friend that had been by his side for over a decade and through school. We'd lived together for just shy of a year and he'd upped and decided with less than 2 weeks notice that he was going to be moving out, little did I know he would halt all contact and leave me with £750 in utility, contract cancellations and additional fees.

A short month and a half later, because of the degraded mental state from the whole situation, I lost a job that was the first one I was passionate about, and very good at. I'd lost all motivation to do it due to considering myself back at square one.

I spent a month or two in unemployment, trying to find a job that I could easily get into, but due to where I live and not driving, it's been more than difficult to say the least. I managed to claw my way back into employment at a local business that I'd worked at before, a local pub called 'The Butchers Arms' but unfortunately, prior to joining, no one pre-warned me about how unreliable the current owner was with paying his staff. I worked there from mid August - first week of Jan 2025. During that time, numerous staff left due to not being paid whereas I had faith that he was a man of his word and would pay people what he's owed. He finally managed to get us partially paid and then during the Christmas period, of which I'd worked 10+ hours Christmas day, not seen any of my family but was hopeful that the, what was supposed to be 'double time' pay for Christmas day, was going to significantly set me ahead financially and help with what had been a slow decline since I'd moved home.

I was wrong. Not only did I give all that effort, staying till 3-4am on most days when closing the establishment on my own, being the last remaining staff member by his side the day we had to close the doors and additional support I've tried to give since he'd given up the business, over 7 months later he still owes me £1,400 for what I worked in December.

I've messaged him once a month for the last 6 months looking for some sort of assurance that he's going to make amends, and he's stayed consistent in his "I will fix this" response, but to no avail, my last message received nothing in return unlike usual.

The business re-opened end of January under some owners that I'd advocated for since I started, our local chefs. Low and behold, this wouldn't be a good 'sob story' if it wasn't abruptly mentioned that I'd put my trust in the wrong places.. yet.. again. The people that I'd spent months relating with about not being paid, growing close to and beginning to admire about how they have the potential to really turn the business around found a sly way to backstab me.

I'd been with them from end of Jan - 2nd July 2025. It was a case of that I'd turn up on my rota'd shifts (2-3 max per week since apparently it's all I was worth) and do the whole thing completely on my own. No contact from any staff whatsoever until the last 10 minutes of my shift when someone had to take over.

It felt like a constant back and forth of fighting to keep my job as easy as it should be, considering I'd been in that line of work for 5 years already and spent 2 of them already in that premises back in 2018, that it was going to be smooth sailing, no problems etc. Apparently not, I was treated as if I were dense. Supposed to know things that were going on in the owners minds about how certain processes and operations were done when it had not been communicated once and then being told (and this is verbatim) "How do you f**k that one up??" when it took everything I had to not snap back at that snide remark.

Eventually, shifts got lesser and lesser and the people I'd advocated for and even mentioned directly to them that they were "the best managerial figures I'd had in my employment career" had decided I wasn't worth their time anymore no matter what I gave. No matter how many times I let them create different rules for me vs everyone else.

On June 2nd, after them giving me nothing work wise for 10 days, the current owner stopped by my house for all of 15 seconds, dropped a 'letter of termination' through my door and sped off. Unwilling to not provide any way for me to rebuttal, have a formal meeting or discuss any reasoning as to why they'd attempted to fire me.

I say 'attempted' for a reason. They stated that "new information came to light that they couldn't in good conscience ignore"- which was confusing, considering I'd spent 10 days at home and not spoken to a single person in relation to that business in that time, it was followed up by a "we're unwilling and unable to discuss or clarify on the matter" which really put the icing on it all for me.

They showed their hand, but failed to write the termination letter properly and dated it for 30d ahead (July 2nd instead) which made it legally void.

After they showed their hand, I decided to hand in my resignation. It wouldn't have changed things if I hadn't because if I mentioned anything, they would've spotted their mistake, corrected it and dished out another lightning fast letter through my door without me able to react.

Either way. I'm now in a situation where, because of my remote location and lack of travel ability, I'm stuck at rock bottom again. Bills massively overdue, not a single penny to my name, no prospects and now seeking assistance from strangers that might never come into my life.

If anyone turns out to be kind enough to provide a helping hand, any at all. You have no idea what you'll be doing for me. I'll be able to assist my parents financially, clear some incredibly late outstanding bills and give myself the slightest amount of breathing room so that I can move into my next (yet to be determined) employment venture.

I tried my local job centers a year ago when looking for assistance and it was fed to me as this holy grail of "what job do you want, we'll get you your dream job" just to be seated in front of a full time gov't employee earning a comfortable salary as they recommended me 20hrs of VOLUNTEER work per week. That the final nail in that coffin for me

If you've read this far. I love you and you mean the world to me. I'm sorry that I'm attempting to rely on strangers for financial assistance, I should be better than this.

-Kay

TL:DR -

TL;DR:

After a series of devastating setbacks since late 2023, including being betrayed and left in debt by a best friend, losing a beloved job, being cheated out of £1,400 in wages by one employer, and then being unfairly fired by the next, I am now unemployed with no money and overdue bills. I am asking for financial assistance to get back on his feet.