Hi, my name is John and I am starting this fundraiser, because I am in need of financial support for several upcoming shoulder surgeries in the next month. For the past few months I’ve been struggling physically and mentally as my shoulder injuries that have been accompanying me for many years now have reached a state where surgery has become unavoidable.

I dislocated my right shoulder for the first time 15 years ago during a motorbike accident and in the following 2 years I experienced several dislocations of my right shoulder. At that time surgery was not necessary according to my doctors. With the help of exercises and working in construction I was able to regain strength and support in my shoulder and I was lucky it didn’t happen anymore until one year ago.

I’ve been having problems ever since.

Not long after the right shoulder dislocated, 14 years ago I also dislocated my left shoulder while snowboarding. At that time I had to go to hospital to put it back and then it happened 5 more times over the year, each time I had to go to hospital and had to endure a lot of pain for hours before they managed to put it back.

I have always been a very active person, doing a lot of manual work, sports, such as cycling, squash, snowboarding. Three years ago I discovered QI Gong as a practice that helped me regain my flexibility and gently stretch the muscles to support myself better.

Since I’ve been a cameraman for many years, I’ve also always had to carry equipment and hold a camera with a steady cam. In order for me to be able to perform my work, I need to be able to shoulder the weight of my equipment and guide and hold it safely.

Now one month and half ago I dislocated my left shoulder (last time was 6 years ago) and as usual I thought things will get better within a week so I have have tried to get back to exercises and restart practicing Qi Gong, but I felt something was not right and 1 week later I felt the bone moving and not staying in the right position. Things got worse and the pain and discomfort I continued to experience spread out towards my right shoulder. Feeling unstable, in pain and discomfort has been my experience of the past 4 weeks and it has affected my well-being, my mental health and more than anything my physical ability to function, to work and to do simple tasks of my everyday life.

In the beginning of August, on the advice of my physiotherapist I went to Bangkok for a physical examination, scan and MRI.

The results have shown that there is a broken bone in the right shoulder that needs to be fixed with an Arthroscopic shoulder labral repair. The injury in the left shoulder is different and needs an Arthroscopic bankart and remplissage.

The good news is that these are very common procedures and I can be back up on my feet in about 4 months time. If all goes well, around 3 weeks after surgery I will be able to drive a car and hold my camera so that means that I can slowly go back to simple tasks and work.

The bad news is that the cost of surgery is extremely expensive plus the cost of rehab with physiotherapist 3 times a week for 4 months + all expenses on the side, plus the time for me to heal which doesn’t allow me to continue my work as filmmaker and photographer to be able to finance my life accumulates to an amount not possible for me to ‘shoulder’ (quite literally) on my own.

So here we are – I don’t have insurance to receive any help so I need to sort out this money on my own. I have been living a slow life off the grid for many years in Australia and Bali and the last time I had insurance was when I was a student in Melbourne. Since then I got no insurance and I am not affiliated to the security system in France anymore so there is no funding that can be asked from.

At the moment my savings would allow me to pay only half of one of the surgeries so I cannot even afford one. On my family side my dad passed away 5 years ago and I haven’t spoken to my mum for the past 4 years so reaching out to my family is sadly not an option.

Today more than ever I need help and this is why I am creating this fundraiser to be able to afford this surgery and make my body heal properly. This is probably the most difficult in my entire life and I have never experienced so much pain, stress and anxiety, but I am trying to keep a positive mindset and see that the future will bring me everything I need to take care of my health.

This is just the beginning of this chapter and I won’t make it without you.

I hope you will be able to support me in this very difficult time.

I am sending lots of love to you all and I thank you in advance for your generosity.