Help Maureen keep her independence and stability

My mum, Maureen Brum, is nearly 80 years old and still opens her little shop, Not Just Nets, every day. She doesn’t own it. She rents the premises and pays everything herself. She doesn’t claim benefits and she’s always tried her best to be independent and keep going.

But the truth is, she can’t run the shop properly anymore. She suffers from confusion and short-term memory problems, and she was trying to keep everything going on her own when she just couldn’t. I didn’t realise how bad things had got until I started being in the shop with her every day around 12 weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been doing absolutely everything I can to help fix it, but it’s been really difficult.

She had gotten herself into a lot of debt by accident. She was taking orders without deposits, cutting fabric, losing track of things, and not charging properly. And she didn’t even realise. I’ve been in there every day trying to claw things back, working so hard, but the pressure has been huge. All I did was ask for a little bit of help. I never expected this to blow up like it did, and some of the things people are saying have been so horrible. It’s hard to hear when you know how hard you’re working.

I do all the work in the shop now. She makes the coffee, and I do everything else. I don’t get paid. I don’t take a penny from her or the business. It all goes to her bills and her rent. Except it’s not even classed as rent. Because of her situation, they’ve changed it to something called a use and occupation charge, which means she still has to pay but can’t apply for housing benefit. So it’s even harder.

On top of that, her housing association has refused to let her stay in the home she’s lived in for years. She applied to take over the tenancy after my brother passed away, and for nearly three years they did nothing. Then they suddenly said she had to start again, and after jumping through every hoop, they’ve said she can only stay if she moves to a smaller place.

But moving would break her. She has tremors, memory loss, anxiety and dangerously high blood pressure. She’s lost a lot of weight (she weighs 34kg) and is barely coping as it is. The stress has taken a huge toll on her health.

I also want to say clearly that I never asked for this GoFundMe to be shared in any article. I didn’t even know it was going to be shared. I’ve asked for it to be taken down because the comments are upsetting and full of false assumptions. Some of them are cruel and completely wrong. One person said I was doing this to go on holiday. I haven’t had a holiday in years. I’m caring for my mum full time and trying to keep her life from falling apart.

This fundraiser is not for me. It’s for her. If there’s anything left after the bills are paid, it will go directly to her and whatever she needs. I don’t touch a penny of it and never will. If it reaches more than expected it will be used to seek a private neurology appointment and hopefully diagnosis but that is very unlikely.

If you can help in any way, whether it’s donating or sharing this, it means more than I can explain. And to everyone who has led with kindness, we see you and we thank you. You’re keeping us going.