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Hello everyone,
We are reaching out to ask for your help in creating a safe and peaceful world for our beautiful 9-year-old daughter, Elaina.
Elaina is a resilient, loving little girl who has had a tremendous amount to deal with in her short life. At age four, she was diagnosed with severe autism, a learning disability, and sensory processing disorder. She is also non-verbal.
While she is now thriving in a wonderful special school, daily life remains an intense challenge for her.
To add to her struggles, Elaina was recently diagnosed with epilepsy. Last year, she suffered severe sets of seizures in May and October. Both times, she had to be placed on a ventilator to help her breathe and was rushed to the Newcastle ICU. She fought through it like a champ, but it has left us incredibly protective of her health and safety.
Why We Urgently Need Your Help
Elaina struggles immensely to communicate, which leads to daily, intense meltdowns fueled by frustration. As she gets older, these meltdowns are becoming more violent. Because Elaina has no sense of danger, she will frequently bang her head and punch furniture, walls, and herself during these episodes.
We are desperate to keep her safe from self-harm and give her the tools she needs to express herself.
The funds raised from this page will go directly toward:
- A Custom Padded Bed & Safe Room: Elaina currently shares a bedroom with her mum. We need a custom-made, padded specialist bed and funding to pad/safeguard her bedroom walls and doors so she cannot hurt herself during a meltdown or a seizure.
- Communication Tools: We want to provide Elaina with a dedicated communication device and personalized PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) cards tailored to her specific daily choices, helping to ease her frustration.
- A Fresh Start in the Countryside: Because of Elaina's severe anxiety, we cannot take her on standard days out to shops or busy areas. However, she loves nature and is her happiest, calmest self in the countryside. We have made the big decision to move our family to a rented house in the country. This will give Elaina the peace she needs, and give our other two children the freedom to play outside with Elaina safely.
How You Can Help
Moving house, securing a deposit/bond, hiring a moving van, and purchasing specialist disability equipment is incredibly expensive, and we simply cannot do it alone.
If you can donate even a little bit, it would truly change Elaina's life—and our whole family's lives. If you aren't able to donate, please consider sharing our page with others.
We will be forever grateful for your kindness, love, and support.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,
Nicola (Mom) and Lee (Dad)
Organizer
Nicola Brett
Organizer