Powered wheelchair mobility 4 Laura

Hello I’m Lee, Laura’s husband one morning when I was at work Laura was found by our  children laying on the floor unable to move her body. They didn’t know what to do and couldn’t find a phone to use as they were panicking eventually they managed to contact grandparents who phoned for the paramedics

Laura was admitted to hospital for treatment and further tests with daily physiotherapy sessions.
Days turned into weeks then months Eventually laura was discharged and had home care to help her dress and wash however Laura’s health rapidly deteriorated.

Laura is now registered disabled and unable to walk unaided unable to do many things for herself 
After years of multiple hospital visits and tests with pain management appointments her pain was getting worse and her medications got stronger to counteract the pain. Laura has spine damage and multiple Chronic illnesses having a shower takes hours because of the pain using adaptions to sit in a chair in the shower with morphine needed to remove some of the pain whilst washing 

A simple shower is exhausting and agony for her it knocks her out and drains her so much

living in excruciating pain all the time is taking its toll on her mental health & wellbeing having to take over 25 prescription tablets a day is bound to be damaging her organs 
Currently clenching her jaw a lot without realising because of the pain and its damaging her teeth and making them crumble we’ve been told she now needs crowns fitted or her teeth removing.

she’s been very low and upset recently due to the pain and being stuck indoors 24/7 since 2018 

at a recent hospital stay whilst they were waiting to operate on a kidney problem she was having
Laura needed iron transfusions and blood transfusions before they could operate and has been diagnosed as anaemic she gets very dizzy falling without warning and feels like her heart is beating very fast in her chest with ringing in her ears blue lips and blue toes 
we were told that this is due to her haemoglobin levels and a reduction of oxygen in her blood. Thankfully her care alarm can be pressed in any emergency 

Laura was a fun person who loved singing, dancing and spending time with family and friends a creative person who loved doing photography and art with an outgoing personality, she was a face and body artist who loved face painting at children’s parties and public events as Little star Faces and for years as a voluntary artist for a charity called SuperShoes U.K where she painted shoes for children with serious life threatening  illness. supershoes 
Laura also worked in retail part time at Next and home bargains and was always busy juggling so many things at once 

always putting  other people first and finds it very difficult to have had to stop with all of things she loved doing. 

Laura has a BA honours and was training to be a teacher and to now find herself housebound and unable to do basic things like washing and dressing independently has been devastating for her.

 

having the roles reversed with our children now caring for her has upset her so much and has really been a struggle for our family to adapt to. 

our daughter who’s 13 has become a young carer with Barnardos and helps laura with most of her daily things and helps with her younger brothers however This has really changed our entire family’s life and has made her feel like she’s not being a mum which is devastating.

Laura has to use a (dementia medication tool) pivotell careousel alarm that was prescribed for her after an assessment as she struggles with getting her medications out of the plastic foil packets and was constantly forgetting if she had taken them missing them or taking too many.
she is able to have her medications at the right time because of this machine

 We’ve also realised that if asleep laura doesn’t hear the medications alarm to react and take her medication on time hopefully her assistance dog in training will be able to help with this.

we’ve had some adaptions done to the house we rent to help her but the walls are too thin for permanent adaptations like stairlifts so she’s unable to get to the top floor and can’t tuck any of the kids in on a night like she used to 
She feels like a burden on her family it would do her the world of good to be able to do some things for herself we are hopeful that her assistance dog and a powered wheelchair will make that possible 

Our house is on a hill making it impossible to get up and down the hill by herself safely in a manual wheelchair the paths and roads are covered with pot holes and the terrain is too rough to keep using a manual wheelchair on 

The pavements in the area are so bad that the first manual wheelchair we purchased wheels snapped in town and laura was hanging into the road (our daughter had to try hold her mum up to stop them both and the wheelchair from getting ran over) 

They had to rely on the kindness of a complete stranger to help them get them off the road and home safely
every local taxi rank refused to help them with a broken wheelchair and a disabled adult.

 We are hoping to get some of her independence back to be able to go into town and get home safely to take the kids to the park and go out without needing anyone to push the wheelchair

Im hoping to raise enough funds to get her a  powered wheelchair system that can handle different terrains outdoors is safe for her to use by herself to get some of her independence back to be able to go into town and get home safely to take the kids to the park and go out without needing anyone to push the wheelchair allowing her to go up and down inclines and pavements without assistance giving her some independence and confidence back.

I work full time employed and as a volunteer (unpaid) for my local youth football club who have been amazing helping to raise funds for Laura by having stalls at the games which we really appreciate as they are a charity ran by volunteers and need fundraising to be able to keep running themselves.

When we hit the target we will get a powered wheelchair and any remaining funds will go on the insurance and used to support Laura.

Thank you you so much for taking the time to read this page, for sharing it, or donating to it.

We don’t normally ask for help it’s very hard to ask but any amount helps so much and it’s appreciated 
from Lee, Laura and our children xx