Donations for an active wheelchair and motor

I HAVE EDITED THE AMOUNT AS I HAVE NOW PURCHASED THE WHEELCHAIR FROM MY SAVINGS! THE £5000 WILL BE FOR THE REMAINING WHEELCHAIR MOTOR! :)

Please scroll down should you need a more accessible and short version of why I’m doing this gofundme. It’ll be under “TL:DR”

My names Abbie and I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user. The term ambulatory wheelchair user refers to people who have a disability or chronic illness and use a wheelchair, though they may have some capacity to walk in limited and particular circumstances. The same as most people that have a car can indeed walk to the destination but sometimes it’s more convenient to drive :)

I struggle physically with both POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome - a condition that causes an abnormal increase in your heart rate, balance, temperature, blood pressure and much more after sitting up or standing up) [please be aware this is still being investigated], HSD (hypermobile specrum disorder - a condition that causes extra joint flexibility, instability, injury, and pain, and fibromyalgia, a pain condition that effects how my body processes the pain signals, causing me to be in more pain than others. It comes with other symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, dysregulation and depression too.

This is the VERY BASIC rundown of my physical conditions.

Around 4 years ago I started presenting with more severe symptoms, which declined my health and warranted the use of a wheelchair when I left my house. However obtaining any kind of disability aid is extremely difficult, whether it’s the lack of funding or knowledge about your disorder or general lack of understanding/care about your disability, the government seems unable to provide easily accessible medical assistance to those who require it regularly for long term.

This is why I am in need of help. Ever since getting my wheelchair we have ran into problems. These include (but aren’t limited to):

For these and many other reasons we have wanted to get a wheelchair motor for over a year now and have been looking into many options, but never done so until now.

Our first thought even before my first wheelchair was a mobility scooter. However that ran into even more problems. It was too heavy to carry up and down the 5 flights of stairs we have, it gave me 0 independence as I was simply pressing a button and sitting down, after sitting for a long period my lower half would get numb and then my partner would be too embarrassed to sit in it whilst I walked a little (totally understandable as I was also embarrassed by using it my first time also), and when the battery died, we had to awkwardly push it and it was HEAVY!

After selling the scooter, we decided to use that money and purchase my first wheelchair. However again, I’m still not getting my full use out of it outside because I’m struggling so much to push it. (I can only push it myself 3 houses before getting too tired) I believe that if I was able to purchase a wheelchair motor, even on the most painful days, I would still be able to make use of my chair and be able to leave my house. It’s been an awful experience being partially house bound simply due to a little fatigue or my joints dislocated more than usual, because me and my partner have to take turns when pushing as he too gets fatigued and in pain with his back, most the time it’s just not worth leaving the house if I can’t push at least 40-50% of the time.

For this reason, we’ve researched the smart drive MX2+ from reviews online and through websites it seems the best suited. It’s lightweight and simply lifts on and off the wheelchair. You can either have a dial to increase/decrease the speed or you can have it connect through Apple Watch if your tech savvy I’m unsure if that will be an option I’ll use though haha. It seems to last a reasonable amount of time compared to other motors and in general is more accessible for what I need. The only downside I can find is the financial aspect.

It is originally £4,841.

However, as you can see on the gofundme, I have rounded that up to £5000 so I’m able to add insurance to the motor should it break after the 1 year warranty, I will be able to get it fixed or be able to replace the necessary parts a little easier. I’ll be setting the gofundme funds to only release once we achieve this goal.

It saddens me that disabled people have to jump through hoops just to have a self-sufficient life and a meaningful one at that. But there we are I suppose. Please if you’ve had the time to read this, donate what you can. If you’ve unable to donate that’s okay too, the fact you’ve sat here and read my story means you’ve listened to me and millions of others like me who struggle with their disabilities. So thank you for listening.❤️‍✨

TL:DR I’m in need of a wheelchair motor as I find it hard to push my wheelchair myself, other options we’ve looked into aren’t suitable for my current needs. The smart drive MX2+ is the best suited option, but even saving £100 a month would take 4 years to save and I don’t have that long mentally.