
Help rebuild my life after car stolen & totalled
Donation protected
My name is Carenza, and I am disabled with hEDS, suspected POTS, and currently blood testing to see if my genes are leaving me at a higher risk for strokes and heart attacks just to list a few of my illnesses.
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A little over a year ago now, my car that I had bought with my (now ex) partner was stolen from our carpark the day after the insurance ran out, and the thief was pursued in a police car chase resulting in him destroying our very much needed car.
We were supposed to be collected by police to retrieve our belongings from the car. All of our walking aids were still in the car from where we had gone out for a photoshoot in the woods. Sadly, this did not happen, and the car was taken to a yard in another town. The yard were trying to charge us £320 for us to come and collect it, plus £26 per day it's there, and the cost of disposal if we were unable to have the car collected by the end of the 7 days allowance.
We had no way of raising this kind of money ourselves in that time, I had just been signed off on SSP from my coffee shop job. This obviously had massively impacted our everyday lives, as we could barely leave the flat, and I could not physically handle the walk to work, doing a shift, and walking home because it's agonisingly painful for me. Public transport was too expensive and or unreliable, so wasn't a longterm option for me.
As if stealing our car with all of our walking sticks wasn't enough, there were very sentimental items in the car. This included belongings such as jackets from family members, expensive LARP(Live Action RolePlay) gear such as larp safe short swords, bespoke tankards, head dresses and in game resources.
After all that, as if that hadn't been enough of a blow to my life, my Ex abandoned me during a massive breakdown.
She blamed me for the loss of the car. She had not installed the black box that she had in her possession for nearly a month, leading to our insurance being cancelled the day before the car was stolen. The car that my family had extended me a loan of £350 for. I paid £150 of my own money, as well as a personal gift of £200 from my close friend, ie the majority of the car's cost (£700 of the £900 total car's price). With the insurance gone, we had no way of getting any of the money back to get a new car, and I was then stuck struggling to pay off the loan from my parents.
During the days following, my ex wouldn't pick up calls or messages for days on end, and had actively excluded me from things in our home when they would return.
After I had already paid rent for the month, paid for a £200+ grocery order that no one else living in the flat contributed to like they agreed to, AND I had paid for the electric, I then left to stay with my sister. I did this to give my ex some space in the hopes we could resolve things.
In the following days, my ex broke her radio silence, deciding to demand more money from me. I stated that we needed to have a different conversation first. She refused to have any other conversation and thusly sent me an email of an eviction notice. I called the housing company they were using and found out I was never even on the tenancy agreement, so add Tenancy Fraud to the pile of stress.
Adding further information, this is when my ex incited a smear campaign against me, reaching my extended family.
We had bought a kitten together, we both put in 50% of the money to buy her, but I ended up paying for all the vet bills, most of her food, etc. During this whole ordeal, my Ex flat out refused to give her up to anybody that had my back, despite not being able to afford to keep her without someone bailing them out everyday.
Despite the fact she could not afford 3 cats, 21 rats, new piercings, new clothes, new tattoos, rent, food, and electricity, she would still indulge and overspend. This was often at my expense, and often before -or without- my consent. I used my wages to pay for her missed bills, and I'd make sure we never went without anything we truly needed, with my family also offering their support where possible.
Fortunately, during all of this, my support network rallied behind me, and I had started living with a close friend and their Dad who are wonderful and still taking care of me. I was paying what I could spare while on SSP before managing to get both PIP and UC. Eventually I managed to pay back my debts from the car, my overdraft and all the extra debts my ex drove me into.
It's been a very long year and a bit since everything happened, and my health has further declined as I rack up diagnoses. I'm now in a wheelchair and rarely leave the house as a result.
I'm in queues for Social housing and getting closer with every cycle to getting my own place to live, as I am still residing with the family who took me in during my darkest moments.
In the name of total transparancy, I will share that at this moment in time, I get ~£393 from UC, and -£405 from PIP, neither benefit covers my rent for me due to my living arrangement.
I am still paying off my secondhand wheelchair, and I struggle to make ends meet on this money without intervention from my network. I cannot work a regular job to balance the additional costs of the limitations my disabilities put my body under, and how severely I struggle in the colder months, especially being in a wheelchair.
I am applying to get a higher rate of UC and PIP as I am only on standard rates based on the information at the time of initially applying.
All that to say, that until I am off the waiting list for social housing, and safely in my own residence and my rent sorted out instead of coming directly out of my PIP rather than towards a wheelchair accessible vehicle, I will be keeping this fundraiser live, to help me get by and survive that little bit longer.
If by the time I do move out of this spare room and there is any amount of money leftover or still coming in, I will be paying the kindness forward directly to helping the wonderful person who took me in. This will help them achieve their gender affirming top surgery.
Anything that anyone can spare would be endlessly appreciated. Thank you for reading, and if you are able to donate, Thank you again.
Organizer

Carenza Elwood
Organizer
England