There is help out there

[Charley_]

Hi all, thank you so much for all your posts to suggest help available and gadgets to buy to help my friend. Since I last posted there have been a few developments. I've started a fundraiser online on Crowdfunder.co.uk and it's doing really well. We've had lots of help from friends and colleagues who organised coffee mornings and car boot sales to support our project. We're well over the target that we had initially and my friend has a smile on her face seeing all the support from people who she has never met.

She has missed all of her appointments with doctors and social workers before just because she was too depressed to come out or even to admit her condition to us and her family.

We're now back on track and we've rescheduled all her appointments and hopefully a structure will be put in place so she can have the care she needs.

At the end of this month, we will have the funds available to buy the necessary equipments.

Thank you all again for all your help and please, please don't give up! Come out, speak about your condition, don't be scared of judgement and what people will think...believe me we've had bad comments and negative influence, but it is important to keep going further, raise awareness and keep going forward!

All the best to all of you!!

Charley

[february]

Wonderful!!! So happy for you all..., ;o)

[neta]

Dear Charley,

I imagine that you are a man and your "friend" is a woman and you have risen to the occasion. Whomever, (doesn't quite matter who you are) your devotion to another's AC is amazing and inspiring. Good luck and carry on!

[Charley_ in reply to neta]

Hi Neta, thank you for your nice words. I'm actually just her friend ( a girl), she is my neighbor back home in a small rural village in the North-West of Romania. I always looked up to her and when I was growing up, she was my idol. I can easily simpathise with her since we are in a foreign country, far away from home. If something like this happened to me, I hope my friends would do the same, as we have no family here to rely on.

I have been asked many times, who is she and why I'm getting so involved and my answer was, she's just a friend that I want to help. I hope you all have friends to rely on and help you go through this difficult time! x

[neta in reply to Charley_]

Well you r a super friend then. Did you check out care in Bucharest or Germany or France? You must be members of the EU? And where are you now? If the answer in the UK, then there are, it seems, many social groups devoted to ataxia there. I am sure that you know this. Again you are a wonderful friend and stay close to her, your stricken friend. As they say, "help the ones you can.."

In health, N

[Charley_ in reply to neta]

Thanks Neta, we're in the UK. My friend has worked as a teacher for about 14 years in London. For the past 5 years she worked in a special needs school and last year, the government has provided a taxi to take her to and from work as she was struggling to walk. I have always admired her devotion to the children until she degraded to the point of no return and depression. There is help, but she just refused to take it as she succumbed to the condition.The system is in place and there are a lot of support groups is just knowing where to turn to.

[neta in reply to Charley_]

I see. Happy she has you to assist her...N