I Never Imagined I Would Have To Do This

There are some things in life you never thought you’d have to do….like setting up a Go Fund Me account!

However, chronic illness and life circumstances sometimes create avalanches, and a helping hand is needed.

Chronic illness and financial stress are not a good mix.

This is the position my husband and I find ourselves in.

We are asking friends if you would please share our Go Fund me page on your social media networks or with anyone you feel appropriate?

Above all, we’d mostly value your prayer support for this next stage of our lives.

The Story Behind The Fundraising

I recently wrote a blog post all about, “It Takes A Village“.

We are now in need of widening our village support to help us achieve an important goal.

As my followers know, my health has become a spiralling journey for 14 years since I was diagnosed with a rare bone disease, causing widespread pathological fractures throughout my body. I had no option but to retire from an amazing career as an executive manager in a financial institution. My left femur broke in two in 2014 as I was walking to my bedroom door. I should have been in a major car crash to have sustained such an injury, and I am so blessed my femoral artery wasn’t severed.

I have had 20 surgeries over the past 20 years, my right femur has also fractured twice , I have a permanent stoma due to prolapses and my lumbar spine is now completely unstable, but inoperable due to the integrity of my bones. My broken bones don’t heal. I constantly have eight foot fractures, some chronic, some acute. There is, unfortunately, no treatment or cure for this progressive disease.

I am an author and a blogger, and a patient advocate, volunteering online with Arthritis Queensland. I’m also the founder of a global FB support group for people with chronic illness, called Medical Musings with Friends.

You can read more of my story here:

https://mymedmusings.com/2015/01/28/my-story/

My husband is my full-time carer. He receives an aged pension, and I am a disability pensioner. We are living pension to pension, and thanks to beautiful friends both lending and gifting us some money, we are just keeping our heads above water financially. I do have an NDIS package (Australian disability support package), which has helped us with carers and equipment, allied health professionals, etc, and we are so grateful for this assistance.

However, we own a home in an over 50s lifestyle village and these can’t be used for reverse mortgage loans, which would have been the perfect solution to release equity and remain settled in our current home. Moving is not ideal at all due to the impact it will have physically on Sam, plus Peter is now in his 80’s and has his own health struggles.

If we do sell our home we need to move to a home that is disability friendly, as Sam can now only mobilise with a walker/wheelchair inside the house and only a wheelchair outside of the home.

We did find a new home in our existing village which is a little cheaper than ours, and depending on what we are able to sell our home for we could potentially achieve the release of our home equity goal. It unfortunately won’t be available to move into until early/mid 2024 and even if we do proceed with this option we still need to survive financially until then and in particular be able to cover Sam’s medical costs until mid next year.

We also just found out the only floor plan available in the villages next new home release stage is a flip version of the one we need for the home to work for us. This means the money we raise here will be so important to help fund us to stay in our existing home for longer than anticipated.

I have eight specialists monitoring and managing her disease, so you can imagine the cost of this.

The rest of 2023 and early 2024 are full of important medical appointments.

There are always upcoming tests and procedures following these appointments, causing us to struggle further with the basic cost of living expenses.

By our calculations, we need $6000 – $8000 to:

1. Get us over the line financially through until mid 2024 while we pursue the possible new home option.

2. It allows for unexpected costs related to my health.

3. It’s enough to cover our ongoing known fortnightly living/medical expenses gap.

4. It provides the small deposit needed to reserve our interest in the new home release.

5. It covers removal costs if we do move in 2024 and costs to do a few small things to make our home sale ready, or the funds will be used to better arrange our existing home to work with my progressive disability.

I never thought I would need a Go Fund me account but I realise there are times in our lives when we simply need to ask for help from a “village” of people, who are each able to assist just a little, so we can raise just enough.

Any help would be gratefully received, and if you are unable to give financially, your prayer support would be wonderful.

Here is our Go Fund me link:

https://gofund.me/5e2415b4

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.

Sam and Peter ❤️

Medical Musings with Friends

If you’re looking for genuine support, care, understanding and friendship, you are so welcome to join my closed Facebook support forum, Medical Musings with Friends . It’s a safe place to connect with others living with chronic and complex diseases, who truly understand the daily challenges. A warm welcome awaits.