Shae's wheelchair dream fund

Hi I'm Shae , a disabled art student from Edinburgh. Being a full time student means I only have my student loan to live off which barely covers the rent let alone the extra costs of being disabled.

I'm here asking for help to keep and improve my mobility to give me the best quality of life.

I was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome classic type 4 years ago despite having shown signs as a child and all through my teens and 20s with worsening mobility being something I always faced.

In 2020 I had to undergo surgery and radioactive iodine treatment for thyroid cancer and whilst I remain cancer free now it had a serious impact on my health and my EDS got worse very quickly.

I was also diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder in 2016 , this also got worse after the cancer treatment.

This led to me needing a wheelchair and I've been a wheelchair user for 5 years now. Due to the inhumane government guidelines for providing wheelchairs I had to self fund a power chair as I did not qualify through the NHS due to me still being ambulatory. Unfortunately due to self funding I don't qualify for any help for maintenance and repair costs. My first goal in this fundraiser is to raise £300 to replace the batteries in my wheelchair as my life and how active I can be is being restricted by the current batteries which are just old and needing replaced. This will help me maintain my current life style which involves going Into college most days and studying HND contemporary art practice. I'm just about to finish my first year and go into 2 year after the summer with hopes of going to uni to get my fine art degree afterwards. As part of my studies it's helpful for me to see as much art as possible and visit galleries, I'd love to be able to travel further afield and see other galleries.

The next goal in my fundraiser is £5000 for power assisted wheels, this would be an upgrade to my manual wheelchair the NHS has given me. I am unable to use my manual chair due to the upper body strength needed and the fact I have lots of upper body dislocations. Power assisted wheels would help me get out and about in a manual chair.

But why do I need a manual chair if I have a power chair ?

Whilst my power chair is amazing it restricts where I can go due to the size and weight of it having a manual chair would open up more places to me aswell as helping me keep what mobility I have and be as physically active as possible.

I will always need my power chair as due to my health there are days where I will not be able to use a manual chair even with assisted wheels so it's important I still maintain that chair.

So whilst having assististed wheels on a manual chair isn't essential for surviving it would help me thrive.

I will add my current NHS wheelchair isn't suitable for me at all but I am working with NHS wheelchair services and will hopefully be provided a Quickie Argon wheelchair in the near future which is the chair I will be adding the assisted wheels to. If for some reason the NHS so not provide a suitable manual wheelchair this fundraiser will change to include the cost of privately funding the manual chair aswell which is about £2000