Help Sabrina regain control of her body!

 

 

Hi, how are you doing today? Thank you for taking a moment to read Sabrina's story; it means the world to her.

 

My name is Sam, and I am fundraising on behalf of my wonderful friend Sabrina who is in desperate need of our help to get her moving and walking again to regain control of her own body.

 

Have you ever thought about waking up one day and only being able to move your eyes?

This was Sabrina's nightmare reality just over a year ago.

Sabrina has been diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) following a seizure caused by mistakes made at the hospital. She also suffers with Fibromyalgia, a condition that causes pain all over the body, sleep problems, fatigue, and often emotional and mental distress.

FND affects how the brain and body sends and receives signals. It can affect everyone differently, with symptoms ranging from paralysis, pain, anxiety and depression. How long someone is affected also varies from months to years. For Sabrina, it is many symptoms together, largely paralysis from the neck down. 

 

This Go Fund Me page is for two reasons;

Firstly, we want to help her gain access to physical equipment. One such piece is a movement machine called Innowalk (https://www.madeformovement.com/innowalk). It is a piece of equipment that would be a lifeline to her and help her move her body again. She has tried it, and it's amazing! It helps to improve joint mobility and muscle strength, would increase her tolerance to stand and enable her to exercise, which would also greatly help her mental health during this time. With this kind of physical stimulation, her chances of recovery are much higher!
Another lifeline would be a standing wheelchair which is assistive technology, similar to a standing frame, that allows a wheelchair user to raise the chair from a seated to a standing position.

Secondly, as you will see in the video, Sabrina's living situation is less than optimal, to say the least. We would love to help her family afford some modifications to the house, so Sabrina has an area that is accessible to her beyond the dining room come bedroom, including a bathroom and toilet.

 

I've known Sabrina for more than 20 years. We went to acting classes together as kids, hung out at each other’s houses, went clubbing together every Friday at the Palladium and had as much fun as we possibly could. She was the bouncy one, the sassy one, the one who, no matter what her circumstances or what life threw at her, would live her life to the full.

 

 

 

Before the days of social media, we lost touch for a while, but then one day, years later, something amazing happened. I was at home crying my eyes out in bed, having been dumped by my boyfriend. The world was ending when I heard the doorbell. You can guess who it was. Sabrina had been up and down the street knocking on doors asking for me, as she couldn't remember exactly what number we were, and the house did not look the same as back in the day. She said I'd been on her mind a while and that she had to come see me. After all these years and at that time when I needed a good friend, there she was. I was devastated when I recently found out what has happened to Sabrina, and now I want to be there for her in her time of need, just as she was for me, albeit in wildly different circumstances!

 

Following some complications with her diabetes (a swollen and numb foot, diabetic neuropathy), she was eventually admitted to hospital. During her admission, approximately a period of 12 hours, she was not given any fluids, any food or any medication for her diabetes and once on the ward, her automatic slider system for medication was not managed properly. A string of incidents, which are still pending official investigation for more than one year, eventually resulted in a first seizure causing damage to her brain, leaving her with limited speech and movement.  What followed was several weeks of hell, before having a second seizure at home. She was taken back to hospital by ambulance. 

When she came round, she could hear her dad's voice asking the nurse;

"Can she move her hands?" "No", she said.

"Can she move her arms?" "No", she said.

"Can she move her legs?" "No", she said.

 

Slowly, Sabrina realized that they were talking about her.

 

Nothing can prepare you for a moment like that. We do not dare to imagine being in such a situation, of having our lives as we know them, changed beyond recognition in the blink of an eye. No one is equipped to deal with this scenario. It's the stuff nightmares are made from.

 

Over the last year, Sabrina has had to learn to talk again and is confined to a wheelchair, no longer able to do anything for herself.

She has been forced to move into the dining room  of her elderly parents house, which is now her bedroom.

She is trapped in her body.

Trapped in her room, in the house, away from the outside world, her friends and family and life in the community that once embraced her.

She relies on a barrage of district nurses and carers coming a minimum of 11 times a day to help her.

She cannot walk.

She cannot get out of bed without a hoist lift.

She cannot brush her own teeth or shower and dress herself, or even use the toilet.

She cannot feed herself. Food doesn’t taste the same when someone else is feeding you.

She can no longer administer her insulin and medication.

She is unable to work and provide an income for herself and her 2 children.

She cannot drive her car or go anywhere without assistance. Ambulances don’t always come, so she misses crucial appointments.

She cannot walk her dog or go shopping.

She cannot dance. Oh, how she longs to dance!

 

These are the everyday things we take for granted and that Sabrina desperately misses.

 

And then there's the mental health aspect...navigating a dark, dark place, trying to muster the strength to see the worth of a life, ‘living’ like this.

 

The good news is, there is hope. The brain can repair itself and with time and positivity, a lot of physical therapy and a host of alternative treatments, Sabrina could improve and regain control of her body. But it's an uncertain road that lies ahead, with no guarantees and very limited support and resources available.

 

Therefore, please, I implore you to donate what you can.

I know you may not know her, and hopefully, this has reached far and wide and some of you do not know me, but please, just think for one moment; what if this were me?

What if you desperately needed help and you couldn't access it? If you were told at every corner that the supposed services available to you, were not in fact available to you, there is no budget for you, there is no time for you. That after having paid into the system for years, when you need it most, it fails you. What if you didn't have access to a toilet or shower in your own house or receive the proper treatment that could help you regain some semblance of the life you once knew?

 

We all work hard for our money and times are tough, I know that, but please be as generous as you can and contribute to her fund.

If you could consider forfeiting that one dinner out, or that pair of shoes or new shirt, you can not only change Sabrina's life, you can help give it back to her! She deserves every chance at living her life to the max.

 

And one last plea, please help me circulate by sending this message to all YOUR friends and ask them as a personal favour to you, to contribute and share it as well. A problem shared is a problem halved, as they say. I strongly suggest using social media (e.g., Twitter and Facebook) to spread the word as fast as possible.

 

 

Thank you for reading and taking the time to get to know Sabrina's story. She is so grateful to everyone who is open and willing to help her and raise awareness for FND. She sincerely thanks you from the bottom of her heart! She has so much more to give to this world.

 

I will keep you updated on Sabrina's progress  and this month is FND awareness month so you can find out more here. (https://fndhope.org/fndaware/) 

 

Thank you again - let's do this for Sabrina!!

 

Best wishes,

Samantha