Please help me get my smile back.

Hi I am Simone.

In July this year , I went to have my eyes checked because I was having very painful headaches, I ended up in an ambulance, the emergency department and being flown to Brisbane within the month to have a large brain tumour removed. Unfortunately, my facial nerve was severed in the process. I now have permanent facial paralysis on the right side, single sided deafness and a permanent shunt. I am a mum of a young daughter and I work as a Special Needs teacher in high school, and I’ve not been able to teach since. Life’s been a roller coaster for our close-knit little family these last few months.

Living with facial paralysis is extremely challenging not only in the visible sense, but functionally as well. Smiling, blinking, eating, talking is very challenging and physically exhausting.

I need specialist surgery for dynamic facial reanimation. This procedure is $50 000 (my health insurance doesn’t cover any of it). The surgery will be life changing for me, but it must be done before the end of the year, or the nerves will not be recoverable.

I am not someone who would normally ask for help. I am usually the one offering help, asking this of strangers is hard for me but I want to have the best shot of getting back to what I do best, helping special needs students and enjoying life with my daughter and family.

I need all the support I can get, if you can help in any small way it would make an amazing difference to me and my family’s life x