Jan Atack Appeal Fund (Fondo de Jan Atack)

(SI DESEA LEER LA HISTORIA DE JAN EN ESPAÑOL, DESPLÁCESE HACIA ABAJO DE LA PÁGINA)

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Updates for December 2019: 

1.  Major Campaign Milestone Reached
Our campaign set out to raise €30,000 in its first year.  This month, we have reached over €16,000, so still on target to reach our target. These contributions are so important. At the moment, we are funding two days of professional home care per week (one day and one night) to give husband Keith a break from the demanding business of looking after Jan. This is costing us around €1000 per month. So every donation is vital - please, please, keep them coming in.

2.  Los Cantarranas Golf Society donates €500
Every time someone plays golf with the Cantarranas, a small proportion of their entry fee goes into a special charity fund. This year they decided that the Jan Atack Appeal Fund should receive the funds. Huge thanks from the Appeal Committee.

3. Our Lady supporters do it again - raising €200
This time, an auction of Ladies golf clothes at the Lauro Golf Ladies Christmas Day raised €200 for the Appeal. The clothes were kindly donated by Terry Wdowiak's friend, Ana Lindex. Thank you Lindex Iceland for your kind support.

4. Handbag Auction raises over €1000
Karen Jordan hosted a ladies lunch with a handbag auction which raised an impressive 1,020 euros. Participants provided handbags, each containing a selection of random gifts and bags were also donated by ladies who could not attend. Karen added a Euro millions ticket to each bag, so that one bag could be worth 30 million euros. Paul Jordan and Roger Horrocks handled the auctioning of the bags. Additional vouchers were donated by Jan at La Risa and Lauro Golf which were also auctioned. Food was supplied by Karen, assisted by Sally Horrocks and Carol Thompson, while Steph Freeman provided raffle prizes. Well done to Karen and her helpers for all their hard work.

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THE STORY SO FAR ...

In October 2018, our wonderful friend Jan Atack went into hospital for what should have been a relatively straightforward operation. When she woke up she was unable to breathe without a ventilator and was paralysed from the chest down.  Prior to her operation, 53-year-old Jan was fit and healthy, with many activity-based interests including a passion for golf which she played several times a week.

Her world has been turned completely upside down. Simple things she did before the operation - something as easy as brushing her teeth, pouring a glass of water, or cuddling a friend or her favourite pet - are now impossible to do on her own. She needs the constant help of other people to do the most basic of daily tasks.

Before and after
The main header picture for at the top of this site shows Jan after her operation - at the hospital, in a wheelchair, with her best friend Karen. The photo below, shows her before the operation, fully fit and leading the ladies team that beat the men in our annual golf competition:


Jan spent weeks in intensive care in a Malaga hospital before being transferred to Spain's top spinal injuries unit - the Hospital Nacional de Paraplejicos in Toledo, Spain, where she received excellent care and rehabilitation sessions. Her devoted husband Keith stayed in a small hotel near the hospital to be with her every day. Although she no longer needs a ventilator, she is still quadriplegic and severely incapacitated.  Eventually, the hospital felt she could not benefit further from inpatient care and so she was discharged to return home in June 2019.

Jan remains amazingly courageous, cheerful, and positive. She is determined to build a new life for herself. But the fact remains that if she is to be able to live at home, she will need considerable expensive equipment and full-time care.

Now she is home, what will she need?
Clearly, what she will need depends on the needs assessment by the local Social Services Department. However, we already anticipated some of the likely items and have been working on sourcing them.

*  a computer which can be controlled without the use of her hands. We have purchased the necessary hardware and software and built her a voice-controlled computer system;

* an electric wheelchair. We have taken over the electric and manual wheelchairs provided for her by the hospital and expect to have to compensate the hospital for them.

* an adapted vehicle for three people and a ramp for her wheelchair. A suitable vehicle has been sourced from the UK and we are paying for its importation and registration.

* full-time home care, at least until an alternative source of funding can be found.  At the moment, we are funding two days of professional home care per week (one day and one night) to give husband Keith a break from the demanding business of looking after Jan. This is costing us around €1000 per month.

You can read more about Jan, her husband Keith and her loyal band of friends, as they battle to help Jan build a new life for herself. Click this multi-page website link: The Jan Atack Appeal 

The equipment and specialist services are expensive and represent a serious financial challenge, but remain vital to Jan's future health and well-being.  We are fund-raising as hard as we can via various media.

How can I help?
You can help enormously in two ways:

1.  Please donate to help someone who has suffered very serious life-changing injuries through no fault of her own.

2.  Also important - please send a link to this page to everyone you know who might help us - and we do mean everyone. Our target is twenty friends per donor. Are you up to this challenge? Of course you are!

Thank you so much, from Jan & Keith:




Ahora, para nuestros amigos y simpatizantes españoles

En Octubre de 2018, nuestra amiga maravillosa Jan Atack se ingresó en hospital por lo que debería haber sido una operación relativamente sencilla. Cuando se despertó, no podía respirar sin un ventilador y estaba paralizada desde el pecho hacia abajo. Antes de su operación, Jan de 52 años, estaba en forma y saludable, con muchos intereses basados en actividades, incluida la pasión por el golf, que jugaba varias veces a la semana.

Su mundo se ha vuelto completamente al revés. Las cosas cotidianas que podría hacer antes de la operación, como lavarse los dientes o verter un vaso de agua, ahora son imposibles de hacer por su cuenta. Ahora ella requiere ayuda constante de personas para realizar las tareas diarias más básicas.

Antes y después
La imagen principal del encabezado de esta página muestra a Jan después de su operación: en el hospital, en una silla de ruedas, con su mejor amiga Karen. La foto de abajo, la muestra antes de la operación, en plena forma y liderando el equipo femenino que venció a los hombres en nuestra competición anual de golf.



Jan pasó semanas en cuidados intensivos antes de ser trasladada a la unidad de lesiones espinales más importantes de España, el Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos en Toledo, donde ha estado recibiendo excelente atención y sesiones de rehabilitación. Su esposo Keith ha estado viviendo en un pequeño hotel cerca del hospital para estar con ella todos los días. Una buena noticia es que Jan ya no necesita un ventilador. Desafortunadamente ella sigue siendo cuadripléjica y severamente incapacitada. El hospital siente que no puede beneficiarse más de la atención hospitalaria y que será dada de alta cerca de final de junio.

Jan sigue siendo sorprendentemente valiente, alegre y positiva. Ella está decidida a construir una nueva vida para sí misma. Pero el hecho es, que para poder vivir en su casa, necesitará un equipo considerablemente costoso y atención a tiempo completo.

Llevando a Jan a casa, ¿qué necesitará?
Está claro que lo que se necesita depende de la evaluación de las necesidades que tendrá lugar cuando llega a casa. Sin embargo, ya sabemos algunos de los cosas más probables:

un ordenador que puede ser controlado sin el uso de sus manos; un soporte eléctrico y una silla de ruedas con inclinación que la hará completamente móvil y reducirá el riesgo de úlceras por presión y osteoporosis; un vehículo adaptado para tres personas y su silla de ruedas; atención domiciliaria a tiempo completo, al menos hasta que se puede encontrar una fuente alternativa de financiación; ayudando con modificaciones en la vivienda también es una necesidad apremiante.

Puedes leer más sobre Jan, su esposo Keith y su leal banda de amigos, mientras luchan para ayudar a Jan a construir una nueva. Haga clic en el enlace del sitio web: La Apelación para Jan Atack 

El equipo y los servicios especializados son costosos y representan un serio desafío financiero, pero siguen siendo vitales para la salud y el futuro bienestar de Jan. Estamos recaudando fondos lo más rápido posible a través de diversos medios.

¿Cómo puedo ayudar?
Puedes ayudar enormemente de dos maneras:

1. Por favor, haga una donación para ayudar a alguien que ha sufrido lesiones muy graves que le han cambiado la vida sin que sea culpa suya.

2. También importante: envíe un enlace de esta página a todas las personas que conoce que puedan ayudarnos, y nos referimos a todos. Nuestro objetivo son veinte amigos por donante. ¿Estás preparado para este desafío? ¡Claro que sí!

Muchas gracias, de Jan & Keith: