The British Embassy in Colombia has advised me to do this, in order to help get a flight to the UK, to get mental health help as well as medical help. I've been stranded in Colombia for almost 3 years, and have just been surviving. Now it's getting desperate.

I hate doing these kind of things, but my story is a complicated one. Please, take the time to read and share:

In July 2022 I came to Colombia, to get a feel, with the intention to make it home-base. I had a remote job that was going smoothly, until my PayPal got hacked. (PayPal was the method to which I was getting paid, and where I was keeping any funds safe.). The account was frozen for 6 months due to suspicious activity and there was nothing to do but wait. I tried to carry on with the funds I did have, using another person's PayPal so I could carry on working. This ended up with me losing my job in November 2022. I kept plugging away with what I had, waiting for the 6-month PayPal ban to pass. It was at this point, late January 2023, that I saw my PayPal funds had been withdrawn. I was left with nothing. My visa also expired at that point. I contacted the British Embassy to see if they could help with matters, leading to them suggesting starting a fundraiser. I did so, aiming to raise enough for a ticket out of Colombia where I could find work legally, or at the very least to survive, as I was pretty much on the street at the time. I raised enough to get me into a hostel for a little while but that was it. I was desperately looking around for jobs here (very difficult as a now illegal immigrant) and received a good offer in a call centre, but I would need to try and apply for a work permit. This person had a friend who could help with it but I needed to pay for it. I asked for more help from people and raised enough to pay for it and started work. This lasted a week, when suddenly the job told me I needed a local bank account in my name. I couldn't get one until I received my work visa. The work visa got denied. I was stuck again.

So I volunteered at a hostel, here in Bogota, where I was also paid commission. Pretty decent too, enough to survive. I worked there from March 2023 until December 2023 but things deteriorated rapidly. The owner saw I was making too much commission and put me working on quiet shifts, sometimes earning me absolutely nothing. I was the only volunteer there, the others being paid employees. Whenever I tried to get a change in shifts, or raise the issue, I was threatened with deportation by the owner (who had kept my passport by the way). Things got worse when the authorities kept trying to close down the hostel due to not having the paperwork to operate. No guests meant no commissions. I spent two weeks without food, selling absolutely everything, down to my shoes, just to eat. After my last campaign I was too ashamed to ask for help. It was at this point that a couple of local friends came to the rescue and got me out of there and got me a part time job in a restaurant, where I worked from February 2024 until April 2025. I was surviving. Even growing.

Meanwhile I was trying to investigate the hacking of my PayPal, leading to many places, in th Hope that I could get a reimbursement from them and carry on with my goals and dreams. This came to a dead-end when the suspects (my ex girlfriend and a "friend" in Mexico) put a prosecution case against me. I had received a lot of threats over the time I was investigating this. With not enough money to pay for a lawyer, incompetent police, the threat of being arrested and held in either a deportation centre or a Colombian jail meant I had to back down for now.

I continued with life, trying to build, survive, even finding love again, until I lost my job in the restaurant.

Back to square one. I lost my job, I lost my relationship because of it, and, with not having any legal paperwork, not job prospects. I was on the street.

The night I was on the street, I wanted to kill myself. I tried to hang myself from a tree in the countryside but failed. I stood on the edge of a view point with the thought of jumping and couldn't do it. I had a knife, and almost stabbed myself in the heart, but couldn't do it. Finally I almost jumped in front of a speeding bus, only for it to stop before it got to me to drop off a passenger. The uncle of my now-ex came to my rescue, convincing the family to let me stay and he'll help find me work. But not quite understanding my legal situation here. Job offers came, and disappeared once they understood. I had to contact the embassy again. The family have given me until May 20 to get out. And the embassy? Well they want me to start a fundraiser again. So here I am. No money, no way to get work, no way to get out of Colombia back to the UK, and soon to be without a roof over my head. I'm eating two eggs a day, and some rice and that's it. The family aren't a family of money, just a family like many who survive a tough world.

I contacted the British Embassy to see what emergency help they could offer and this is their advice.

Please, if anyone can help, in any way possible, it would mean the world to me.