Hi, my name is Lee and this is my family's story.

After 6 long traumatic painful years our beautiful daughter is finally coming out of a Mental Health and Learning Disability hospital.

After being sectioned in January 2020 at just 16, she spent 2 years in a children’s hospital in Northumberland before being transferred to Adult Services when she reached 18 for the remainder. We were naive in thinking admission into hospital would help her. In reality it brought more trauma and further deterioration to her and us as a family. Suffering in hospital has led to significant life changes.

We walked our daughter into hospital however, due to trauma she lost the use of her legs in 2021 and is now fully reliant on a wheelchair. She suffers from an undiagnosed condition where she lives on fire and burns internally requiring her environment to be cold at all times with the use of air con fans and ice packs to cool her.

She has permanent damage to her head from self injurious behaviour again caused from trauma.

Her world has become so small as she lives on her bed daily because she has lost trust in people due to being let down for so long. Her only request is to be happy and have a ‘housey family’ not staff who have a good heart and get her.

Prior to admission our daughter suffered bullying at school, had severe anxiety disorder and finally received a diagnosis of Autism at the age of 15 after a very long fight. All she asked for was help to manage in the world but that help never came.

The right team to support our beautiful girl is key to her happiness. People who are passionate, caring, good heart and able to understand her individual needs. Finding these people is crucial.

Two members of staff who worked previously with our daughter have kindly agreed to come back and support her in the community (we need 12 people altogether) however, as the service provider pays a lower rate of pay in this area and one doesn’t live locally this will impact on him financially so we would like to contribute to his expenses to ensure this happens and continue to sustain this in the future.

As her world has become increasingly smaller we would love to be able to be able to purchase outdoor equipment for the garden including a specialised swing and games with the possibility of a bespoke pink wheelchair in the future. Anything we can do to help ensure a smooth transition into the community.

We have struggled as a family over the years to comprehend the damage that has been caused. No amount of money can repair the hole in our hearts and the loss we feel in so many ways watching our daughter live in such a torturous way. My wife gave up work to be there for both our girls to ensure we could travel the distances to visit and fight daily. Although some days have been dark we’ve always tried to remain positive fighting and praying everyday to ensure she gets some quality of life and happiness back. By the hospitals own admission, hospital has never been the right environment for our daughter and has caused more damage.

This is why we are finally reaching out to our family and friends if you can, to help support her and us in the next chapter of her life.

We are truly grateful thank you.