Help Nikki rebuild her home at Girards Hill

I'm friends with Nikki McGuire, who lost everything in the disastrous flood event on the morning of the 28th of February, 2022, in Lismore. As she is pretty traumatised by the event, I wanted to start a fundraiser to assist Nikki in rebuilding her life.

 

Her mum stood pregnant with her in her belly on the front deck of their Girards Hill home in Lismore in 1974, waiting to be saved from the big flood. It was a big one. But they were used to floods, and they had built the house to weather each event and stay safe. Forty-seven years on, and Nikki found herself gripping to her roof's gutter for an hour, in freezing, raging floodwaters, bitten by insects up her hands and arms as she clung on for her life. She had just abandoned her beloved Bengal cat, Max and Italian greyhound, Lizzy, on a mattress floating in her living room. She made the call as the water rose to within 40cm from her second-story ceiling, and she saw on social media (her only contact with the outside world) that the flood would peak at over 14 meters. She knew she had to dive down into the floodwaters in her living room, unlock the window, open it and swim for her life. All she could think was, have I made the biggest mistake of my life. Nikki was rescued by a local hero, James Todd, who used his Kayak to rescue more than 80 people that morning along this street and others.

Nikki's neighbours returned to the street in a tinny the next day once the floodwaters had receded and heard a dog barking. They went to Nikki's home and found Lizzy, her dog sitting on the mattress in the middle of the lounge room. They later found her cat on a mattress in one of the bedrooms. They had survived the flood and were reunited with Nikki and the world felt ok again.

 

Unfortunately, Nikki's house was gutted. She needs to rebuild a new kitchen, bathroom, laundry, paint the inside of her house and furnish it. Any contribution will be greatly appreciated by Nikki.