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Help Micky Get His Legs Back

I’m Peter Towey and have created this GoFundMe page for a great and dear friend, Micky Kidd who is suffering from long term mobility challenges.

I have known Micky for approximately 20 years and what started off initially as a business relationship quickly developed into that of a long lasting and steadfast friendship which is very strong to this day.

Micky is very much a people oriented person and one of the most caring, thoughtful, dynamic and go ahead friends I have had the good fortune to meet.

Over the last 4 years his health has sadly taken a huge turn for the worse and this dynamism that has always been an intrinsic part of Micky’s character and personality has been greatly diminished due to a cascading level of health related issues culminating in the position that he now finds himself in.

As will become even more clear once you read further on down the page, Micky’s primary challenge at this current time, in addition to recuperating from recent surgery, is mobility, right down to the very basics of having to go out to buy food, attend surgery appointments, etc. – in fact anything that involves the need to leave his flat to attend to.

As a result of Micky’s medical condition, he is unable to walk very far at all and when there is no option but to force himself out to attend to life’s necessities, he can be left in extreme pain, discomfort and fatigue. This in turn does nothing to help with his recuperation and simply prolongs the whole process.

Until fairly recently Micky had a reasonably standard mobility scooter to assist with short trips out of his flat but he currently no longer has this luxury because of its terminal mechanical failure and his inability to purchase a new and reliable one due to income constraints brought on by his medical condition.

Micky has been unable to work for some time now as a result of his health issues and any income that the state provides is quite simply insufficient to cover his requirements and goes nowhere in assisting with his longer term recovery and rehabilitation.

The aim of this gofundme page is quite simply – to help Micky ‘get his legs back’ – ie. To empower him to be able to get out of his home to carry out at the bare minimum, the basics. To give him the choice as to when he wants to visit the shops, attend a doctors or hospital appointment or visit a friend or relative.

With the help of everyone who sees this page, we will hopefully achieve this moderate but critical aim and give Micky back the mobility he needs and deserves.

I would like to ask everyone who is able, to please make a donation – however small or large – towards our GoFundMe account. The amount is irrelevant as every brass ha’penny will be a big help and will be gratefully received.

As well as any donations, we’d like to ask people to share this page to an even wider audience and help us in our aim to give Micky an improved level of mobility.

I thank you in advance for your much valued help and support.


Micky has been more or less housebound since before Christmas shortly after he has had arterial surgery to restore his lower body blood flow. This is mostly due to his mobility scooter’s demise and his inability to walk very far at all plus an income situation caused by ill health which will not support taxis, public transport and scooter repairs. So getting him some mobility is of paramount urgency.

If you read on you will begin to understand how someone like Micky can eventually be ground down to this level by health and circumstance.

When I first met Micky in the mid 2000’s he was a fit self employed photographer/videographer (especially on the local live music scene) Web and graphic designer, business consultant, freelancer and solo entrepreneur living in Penzance, Cornwall. He had previously worked at sea and then in the hospitality industry for years.

The summer of 2015 was getting going good when Micky answered a call for help from his eldest niece in the North West of England where she was running a large public house. So, at the beginning of June he hopped on a plane in Cornwall and went up for a couple of weeks to help.

This two weeks ended up turning into three months in which amongst other things he rebuilt the bare bones and renovated a commercial kitchen for the pub. All this time as he had his laptop with him running his own business concerns.

Last day of August back on a plane back to Newquay and looking forward to an end of summer well earned break at home.

Two weeks into September something wasn’t quite right. His usual walk to one of his local venues was taking longer and becoming painful. He shrugged this off thinking he’d just had a hard summer and it would go away.

The opposite happened and by October he went for a check up and tests and visits to a muscular skeletal consultant began followed by scans.

By early 2016 wheels became a necessity in the form of a mobility scooter. From here on work began to suffer as pain and spinal stenosis took over.

Hospital visits/procedures by Easter and October 2016 brought some recovery back to walking but unable to carry more than 5 pounds in weight as this made walking very painful. However by the end of the year it got worse again and progressively so, requiring the acquisition of a more permanent mobility scooter.

Although Micky was able to walk around his flat and local pub and shops, any distance more than 30 yards required the assistance of his wheels, as he calls them, his legs. To do a really good week's shopping would definitely need the use of the scooter to carry the weight home.

By early 2019, lower back, leg and foot pain and serious night cramps were affecting health and the will and concentration to work, even at the home office desk.

Income as a self-employed person was now becoming a concern for him. It was an effort to keep up with everything, especially scooter maintenance and new parts.
The beginning of May 2019 saw Micky with a deep skin infection after another hospital procedure and this time developed into an arterial lesion in the left ankle knuckle and a venous ulcer on the lower right leg, both of which would not heal up, instead, just became worse. Further investigation by a different consultant discovered at the end of October 2019 that his lower body and leg blood flow was compromised.

Emergency scans were arranged and shortly followed by arterial and vein surgery to successfully restore the compromised blood flow. As Micky said, the surgeon said he might be able to give him his legs back for Christmas.

This would have been the best present ever apart from the very fact Micky and his family lost his dear mother on the 18th November, the day before the first op to restore the arterial blood flow which he still went ahead with. Although elated about the success of the op, he was devastated by the loss of his mother to whom he was very close and now unable to share his good news with.

After the second op, albeit not so complex but just as important to finish the job in December the extra blood flow replaced the excruciating pain with 'healing' pain.

Remember that his lower body has been starved of blood for over 3 years and has suffered accordingly, especially his lower core strength and stamina. Although because of previous history he will not be able to carry any significant weight but with time, work and effort, walking will improve but not completely.

To make the healing process harder his mobility scooter of three and a half years finally packed in, totally worn out and hardly worth fixing.

This is where we want to help Micky get his legs back (wheels). To heal in the best way without straining the fragile system which needs months of physio on his part to get the best out of the recovery. This would help remove the stress and help him get back to working at what he loves to do.

We want to help future proof his mobility so he is able to work properly again, to move around the community and contribute to the worlds he so loves doing work for and do his own shopping

Micky has been more or less housebound since before Christmas week so this could only help the healing process. Please help me get Micky’s quality of life back for him, his legs.

How your donations could help Micky:

All of these would make a big difference for Micky and his stress free recovery. And if everyone who reads this donated even £5, we could dramatically change his life for the better faster and help him get back to working for and in the community he loves to be involved with.

By the end of February/March (dependant on recovery time) as a way of thanks, Micky would be very happy to give people who donate some of his time as a web or business consultant. He says anyone who has a hobby or skill they are passionate about can make you a living, whatever it is. He says with a little research he can show you how and the possibilities even if you don’t believe you could make an income from your hobby. Just express an interest in having some of his time, he is good at seeing a bigger picture and a bit of a web expert too.


£1690.00 buys an Electric Mobility Scooter Unique500 from www.mobilitypower.co.uk

£99.00 more upgrades the motor to an 800W Motor excellent for uphill riding in Cornwall

£49.00 more buys an additional key & remote controller, as it seems silly to us not to have a spare set with a vehicle.

£600.00 more buys a Universal fit fold away Rain Canopy for Mobility Scooter. The weather can be somewhat wet in Cornwall at times.

£90.00 more buys a full year comprehensive insurance cover including 24/7 breakdown cover.

£312.00 more buys the deck including building it, needed to park the scooter out front of Micky’s flat front garden where he already has a flip over mobility scooter garage to protect it in bad weather.

£160.00 more buys, including fitting, the waterproof power point to go on the deck for easy charging of the scooter.

Total £3000.00



Organizer and beneficiary

Peter J. Towey
Organizer
England
Micky Kidd
Beneficiary

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