A Home for Roxanne

REQUEST FOR URGENT HELP!

Hi Everyone!

My name is Roxanne Roma.

I’m seriously physically unwell and homeless.

I DESPERATELY NEED HELP!

I need funds to convert a static caravan in Winchelsea to make it safe for me to live in, and to buy a campervan I can live in when the caravan park is closed in the winter.

I have been living in my car in St Leonards and Bexhill for over a year. I also have a very old, small campervan to wash in, change my clothes and go to the toilet.

My immune system is ‘faulty’ and many harmless things trigger it to over-react. Unfortunately, because of this, I cannot spend too long in the campervan because my immune system cannot tolerate it for long, so I sleep in the car.

I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER NAMED LOLA, who is being looked after by my elderly parents.

My Mum is also my carer. She has Parkinson’s disease. She cooks my meals as I am unable to use any type of cooker anymore.

HOW DID I END UP IN THIS SITUATION?

I used to be a busy hairdresser and holistic therapist.

Some years ago, despite my medical notes stating I was allergic to it, I was prescribed an antibiotic. After that I became very ill with severe gut inflammation and started to tolerate fewer and fewer foods.

Eventually, after a decade of A LOT of digestive problems and severe weight loss, I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Crohn’s disease.

Unfortunately, after many years of eating the wrong foods (through ignorance at that time and poor medical advice) and being prescribed copious amounts of drugs to suppress my immune system, I started to sensitise and react to things in the environment when I breathed them in. Over the years the list of things that I reacted badly to became ever longer. I had to give up work.

I react to all fragrance (natural and synthetic), cleaning and decorating products, cigarette and all other smoke, cooking and food smells, exhaust fumes and even dust mites, pollens and animal danders.

My body can no longer process minute amounts of toxins because my metabolic pathways have become damaged, so seemingly harmless things can send my immune system into chaos.

PROBABLY ONE OF THE WORST PROBLEMS I HAVE IS THAT I REACT TO MANY ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELDS – I get severe inflammation.

These reactions can affect my gut, breathing, muscles and skin, sometimes all at the same time.

I can convulse, collapse and go into anaphylactic shock. I can no longer use a mobile phone for emergency assistance.

I had to flee to the seafront a year and a half ago to save my life because my system ‘crashed’ and I had become what is known in Environmental Illness circles as a ‘Universal Reactor’.

Even bottled water gave me serious reactions and a combination of steroid injections plus avoidance of as many ‘triggers’ as possible saved my life and enabled me to put on some weight.

My body was like a skeleton when I first started to live in my specially adapted car.

My car has had the wheels de-magnetised, is earthed, and has some modern gadgetry which enables me to be ok in it.

The COVID-19 pandemic (as I am aware is the case for countless others) has added more complications and complexities to an already difficult situation. I almost died of flu in 2016 and I have been social distancing and self-isolating for over a decade, plus wearing a mask. This is because if I go near people I react badly to the normal everyday products they wear.

Someone has to completely ‘de-contaminate’ before I can hug them (i.e. no fragrance whatsoever, not even washing powder).

WHAT I NEED

Please can you help me to raise money to convert a static caravan I have found on a lovely small site, as well as to buy a campervan I can live in in the winter months when the caravan site is closed?

I need a ‘safe’ place to live to survive this illness and allow my immune system to heal.

This would also mean that my daughter and I would be able to stay together again.

I arranged her Christmas presents on the bench of a shelter [on the sea front] last year. Luckily it was a sunny day.

When asked to write a Christmas list she wrote: ‘I would like my Mummy’.

I’ve fought with housing associations, written to MPs and councillors etc.

Please can you help my family and I by either donating money or helping to raise it?

N.B. FOR YOUR INFORMATION SEE:
MCS Aware  (about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity)
Electro Sensitivity UK  (about ElectroHyperSensitivity)

NOTE FROM LIZ (the organiser of this page): All funds will go towards the renovation of Roxanne’s static caravan and buying a new campervan (apart from the platform processing fees of 2.9% + 25p per donation).

I will keep you updated via facebook and email as to how the funds are being used, and the progress of the renovation. If the target isn’t met the funds will still be put towards the renovation and campervan. If for any reason the renovation doesn’t go ahead, the funds will be put towards Roxanne's many medical expenses.

Donations will go into a bank account managed by myself. I will release funds as required, on presentation of invoices.

And lastly, thank you for donating towards a home for Roxanne! Having somewhere safe to live at last will make a world of difference to her.