Hi my name is Stuart and I've been a single parent of two boys since their mother died unexpectedly in 2021.

I'm fundraising because we had a house fire on the 10th December and lost everything right before Christmas.

Since this happened thing's have been reallly overwhelming. I've struggled getting urgent replacements for important medications like my insulin and the pens it goes in as I'm diabetic.

This was made more difficult as I'd lost my phone, my wallet, any ID I had in the fire and my doctors surgery only does these things online now.

If you could please help with any donations however small these are things I hope to use any funds raised for...

Now I'll try my best to tell you what's happened .

On the 10th of December a fire started at our house. Fortunately my boys were at their nan's house so I was alone at home.

Fire crews attend incident in Robeck Road Ipswich

As a self-employed bathroom fitter of 25 years things were already starting to get difficult for me over the last 2 years as physical disabilities have gotten worse leading to a point where I couldn't walk far due to pain and was getting breathless or dizzy and passing out often knocking myself out.

This has happened both at home and at work.

Due to this I had to reduce the amount of work I was doing which had a significant effect on my financial situation.

In October this year I suffered another DVT which still hasn't healed so my legs are swollen with poor circulation and painful cramping.

This in combination with some other new health conditions has stopped me from being able to do my job as I'm struggling to walk short distances with my cane because of pain in my legs, back and shoulders.

I've struggled to save enough money for Christmas and one of my sons also has his Birthday between now and Christmas. After trying so hard to make sure I could get my boys some nice presents it was devastating to lose everything like this.

The fire basically took everything crom upstairs then it was revealed asbestos was used in the construction of our house and after the fire it's dust had settled all over our house meaning we won't have access to the house until at least after Christmas and it'll likely be well into next year before that dust has been cleared by professionals and the council are able to do the necessary repairs to the house so it's safe to live in again.

Everything upstairs is burnt, we've lost all our clothes, my phone and wallet. Our beds, bedding and other furniture. TV's, and my laptop which I've been using for courses to change my career as I can't fit bathrooms anymore but just don't feel fulfilled if im not working. If been lent a phone which is important to me as since my physical health's gotten worse it's became more difficult to control my diabetes. I have a sensor in my arm that monitors my blood glucose 24/7 and alarms me either through my smartwatch or phone if the levels are headed in the wrong direction. This has been life changing for me so losing the phone and watch made things much more difficult especially considering stress itself affects my blood glucose levels. Fortunately I have temporary use of a phone thst works woth my sensor but I have to return it soon so I really need to get a replacement for myself ASAP.

One of my sons has been suffering with his mental health and has found support online, he also finds the noise cancelling headphones that were recommended to me very beneficial as like me he struggles with lots of people and noise in public places. Both our headphones are gone and his computer destroyed too.

The ground floor wasn't directly affected by fire like upstairs was but water from the fire hoses and a pipe in the bliker cupboard which the heat caused to burst poured through the ceiling destroying electrical equipment in the kitchen.

I don't have access to a washing machine but there's a laundrette close to where I'm currently staying and the small amount of clothes I was able to recover before the house was secured smells badly of smoke which won't wash out.

We've lost everything just before Christmas including our Christmas presents and one sons Birthday presents. We've lost things essential for normal life and things essential for our well-being because of our neurodivergence.

The stress of all this and how/what options I have for moving forward has exacerbated my neurodivergent conditions making everything harder.

Being self-employed I've always had to save money for the Christmas period where people in my trade have some amount of time off work and since the cost of living crisis the amount of time between Christmas and work picking up again has gotten longer. Combined with me initially only being able tontakenon smaller plumbing jobs and now being barely able to do anything physical I needed to save more this year than usual but because of my severely reduced working hours and only.being able to take smaller jobs I wasn't able to save anywhere near as much as I usually would.

Everything we had in that house is gone or damaged. I've no idea how I'm going to stop this ruining Christmas for my children.

Right now that's my main worry, then its how will we rebuild things after Christmas and how long will it even be that we have to live like this.

Thank you for reading this and if you can donate anything to help however small thank you for giving me a chance to give my boys a good Christmas and thank you for helping us rebuild things.