Help Isabella by funding an AV1 #GetBellaBetter
Donation protected
Firstly, THANK YOU for taking the time to read our story and I truly hope you can help us with our request!
I’d like to start by saying that I’m not a sales person working for the company (No Isolation) I’m writing this as a dad to a daughter who I have had to watch change overnight and lose out on so much of her early teenage years following whatever this illness is that has taken hold of her and a dad who has given a promise to her that he will do everything and ANYTHING he can with every breath in his body to get her better and back to doing what she loved no matter what it takes!!
To those of you who know us as a family will know that for over 12 months now we have gone through one of the toughest times we have ever faced as a family with our daughter Isabella and we still haven’t had the light switched on at the end of this VERY long and dark tunnel.
Prior to December 2018, Isabella was a happy healthy young lady who had just entered her teenage years and was enjoying life, in December 2018 she picked up what appeared to be a harmless respiratory infection and missed the last week of school prior to the Christmas break, sadly Isabella hasn’t been back to school since (Over 12 months now) and following that infection things have gone from bad to worse, the bundle of energy we once knew changed overnight. The best way of describing the way things unfolded are that she pretty much fell off a cliff (Metaphorically) over night and is now a shadow of her former self!!! NEVER has the phrase chalk and cheese meant so meaningful!!!!
Isabella was doing amazing at school and loved her life, she danced pretty much every day/night through school and in her private life, my wife and I spent many a night sitting on a couch in a dance studio in Warrington starring at a wonderful mostly empty vending machine waiting for her to finish but she loved it!!!
She was also involved with the choir at school and a local drama group, we absolutely loved attending the shows and seeing her up on the stage as she was amazing and really came alive performing, she has an amazing group of friends and had a better social life than us!!
Isabella has spent the last 12 months in and out of hospital for multiple appointments and numerous investigations, she’s been pricked and prodded and tested (We’ve lost count of the number of times she’s had blood tests) which in itself hasn’t been a great experience however the hardest part came when she sadly spent pretty much the whole of February 2019 in hospital.
Despite all the procedures, tests, needles etc. and because she doesn’t fit neatly into a particular box no one has been able to give us a diagnosis or a treatment plan to help get her better and back to where she used to be, she is missing out on EVERYTHING and I mean everything as other than going out to the hospital she doesn’t leave the house.
Isabella’s symptoms include, not sleeping, constant double vison, constant headaches, constant stomach pain and swelling, sweating to her legs (Resulting in having to get changed multiple time per day) extreme fatigue and chest spasms ANYTIME she eats anything, and if that lot isn't bad enough we’ve not heard her speak since coming out of hospital in February and she currently only has a very small whisper for a voice!!!
At the end of August (2019) she was due to have surgery on her eyes which we hoped would have helped her double vision and we might have relived some of the headaches but on the morning of the surgery the Anaesthetist who was due to look after Isabella refused to proceed with the operation as she had concerns about Isabella’s general heath and wasn’t happy with how she was, which looking back we fully agreed with but it was still disappointing as it could have and would have helped Isabella!!
Being diagnosed with a long-term or chronic illness puts a HUGE dent and strain on your everyday life, and can cause you to miss school and time with your friends, which has most definitely been the case for Isabella.
Often, the isolation can be as bad as the illness itself!!!
Now for my ask........
Whilst we continue to fight with the medical side of things we found a device via a company called No Isolation that we strongly believe could be a massive boost/help for not only Isabella’s Mental Well Being but would massively reduce her social isolation and eventually allow her to take part in full lessons at school when she is fit enough to do so from home.
No Isolation (www.noisolation.com/uk/ ) is a Norwegian company, founded in October 2015. Their mission is to reduce involuntary loneliness and social isolation by developing communication tools that help those affected.
The device we have in mind is called AV1 - www.noisolation.com/uk/av1
AV1 is the distance learning avatar that makes it possible for children and young adults with long-term illness to take part at school via an app on their phone or tablet.
AV1 gives children the ability to see, hear and talk to their classmates as if they were actually there!! The genius part is AV1 basically takes Isabella’s place in the classroom!!!!
We originally approached Isabella’s school over AV1 to ask if they would be prepared to fund it, selfishly we are only asking for Isabella at this point but we know that she is not alone in not attending school and a device like AV1 could help so many people but this is about OUR daughter and what we can do to help her at this moment in time to improve her mental wellbeing no matter how small a step it might be!!
As we expected the school sadly came back to us and advised that they don’t have the funds available to be able to help/support us with our request.
We then spoke to No Isolation again to see if there was anything they could do and after some discussions they came back to us and very kindly offered Isabella a three-month free trail funded by an American University to try and give her a short-term boost and show the school how valuable AV1 could be in these situations!!!
As personal funding sadly isn’t an option and funding via the school and local authority is a blocker to getting long term access to AV1 for Isabella beyond the trial we’d like to ask for your help in trying to raise some money to be able to purchase an AV1 device directly from No Isolation and some additional money to fund it for a couple of years past the original purchase so that once the free trial comes to an end we can continue to help Isabella and not set her back by giving her a glimpse of day to day normal life then cruelly ripping it away from her and potentially setting her back!!
Long term our thought process is that WHEN Isabella is better and back in school and living her life to the maximum again we would like to look into setting up a Charity in Isabella’s name and loan the unit out to another deserving person/organisation and allow them to get the benefits we know we will get from AV1 without the fight and disappointment we have had in not gaining funding locally.
It’s been a hell of long road to this point and as I wrote earlier the light is still not switched on at the end of the tunnel, but we will NEVER give up fighting!!!!
On behalf of Isabella, my wife and our youngest daughter, THANK YOU again for reading our story, and any help you can offer no matter how small would be very much appreciated.
#GetBellaBetter
THANK YOU!!
I’d like to start by saying that I’m not a sales person working for the company (No Isolation) I’m writing this as a dad to a daughter who I have had to watch change overnight and lose out on so much of her early teenage years following whatever this illness is that has taken hold of her and a dad who has given a promise to her that he will do everything and ANYTHING he can with every breath in his body to get her better and back to doing what she loved no matter what it takes!!
To those of you who know us as a family will know that for over 12 months now we have gone through one of the toughest times we have ever faced as a family with our daughter Isabella and we still haven’t had the light switched on at the end of this VERY long and dark tunnel.
Prior to December 2018, Isabella was a happy healthy young lady who had just entered her teenage years and was enjoying life, in December 2018 she picked up what appeared to be a harmless respiratory infection and missed the last week of school prior to the Christmas break, sadly Isabella hasn’t been back to school since (Over 12 months now) and following that infection things have gone from bad to worse, the bundle of energy we once knew changed overnight. The best way of describing the way things unfolded are that she pretty much fell off a cliff (Metaphorically) over night and is now a shadow of her former self!!! NEVER has the phrase chalk and cheese meant so meaningful!!!!
Isabella was doing amazing at school and loved her life, she danced pretty much every day/night through school and in her private life, my wife and I spent many a night sitting on a couch in a dance studio in Warrington starring at a wonderful mostly empty vending machine waiting for her to finish but she loved it!!!
She was also involved with the choir at school and a local drama group, we absolutely loved attending the shows and seeing her up on the stage as she was amazing and really came alive performing, she has an amazing group of friends and had a better social life than us!!
Isabella has spent the last 12 months in and out of hospital for multiple appointments and numerous investigations, she’s been pricked and prodded and tested (We’ve lost count of the number of times she’s had blood tests) which in itself hasn’t been a great experience however the hardest part came when she sadly spent pretty much the whole of February 2019 in hospital.
Despite all the procedures, tests, needles etc. and because she doesn’t fit neatly into a particular box no one has been able to give us a diagnosis or a treatment plan to help get her better and back to where she used to be, she is missing out on EVERYTHING and I mean everything as other than going out to the hospital she doesn’t leave the house.
Isabella’s symptoms include, not sleeping, constant double vison, constant headaches, constant stomach pain and swelling, sweating to her legs (Resulting in having to get changed multiple time per day) extreme fatigue and chest spasms ANYTIME she eats anything, and if that lot isn't bad enough we’ve not heard her speak since coming out of hospital in February and she currently only has a very small whisper for a voice!!!
At the end of August (2019) she was due to have surgery on her eyes which we hoped would have helped her double vision and we might have relived some of the headaches but on the morning of the surgery the Anaesthetist who was due to look after Isabella refused to proceed with the operation as she had concerns about Isabella’s general heath and wasn’t happy with how she was, which looking back we fully agreed with but it was still disappointing as it could have and would have helped Isabella!!
Being diagnosed with a long-term or chronic illness puts a HUGE dent and strain on your everyday life, and can cause you to miss school and time with your friends, which has most definitely been the case for Isabella.
Often, the isolation can be as bad as the illness itself!!!
Now for my ask........
Whilst we continue to fight with the medical side of things we found a device via a company called No Isolation that we strongly believe could be a massive boost/help for not only Isabella’s Mental Well Being but would massively reduce her social isolation and eventually allow her to take part in full lessons at school when she is fit enough to do so from home.
No Isolation (www.noisolation.com/uk/ ) is a Norwegian company, founded in October 2015. Their mission is to reduce involuntary loneliness and social isolation by developing communication tools that help those affected.
The device we have in mind is called AV1 - www.noisolation.com/uk/av1
AV1 is the distance learning avatar that makes it possible for children and young adults with long-term illness to take part at school via an app on their phone or tablet.
AV1 gives children the ability to see, hear and talk to their classmates as if they were actually there!! The genius part is AV1 basically takes Isabella’s place in the classroom!!!!
We originally approached Isabella’s school over AV1 to ask if they would be prepared to fund it, selfishly we are only asking for Isabella at this point but we know that she is not alone in not attending school and a device like AV1 could help so many people but this is about OUR daughter and what we can do to help her at this moment in time to improve her mental wellbeing no matter how small a step it might be!!
As we expected the school sadly came back to us and advised that they don’t have the funds available to be able to help/support us with our request.
We then spoke to No Isolation again to see if there was anything they could do and after some discussions they came back to us and very kindly offered Isabella a three-month free trail funded by an American University to try and give her a short-term boost and show the school how valuable AV1 could be in these situations!!!
As personal funding sadly isn’t an option and funding via the school and local authority is a blocker to getting long term access to AV1 for Isabella beyond the trial we’d like to ask for your help in trying to raise some money to be able to purchase an AV1 device directly from No Isolation and some additional money to fund it for a couple of years past the original purchase so that once the free trial comes to an end we can continue to help Isabella and not set her back by giving her a glimpse of day to day normal life then cruelly ripping it away from her and potentially setting her back!!
Long term our thought process is that WHEN Isabella is better and back in school and living her life to the maximum again we would like to look into setting up a Charity in Isabella’s name and loan the unit out to another deserving person/organisation and allow them to get the benefits we know we will get from AV1 without the fight and disappointment we have had in not gaining funding locally.
It’s been a hell of long road to this point and as I wrote earlier the light is still not switched on at the end of the tunnel, but we will NEVER give up fighting!!!!
On behalf of Isabella, my wife and our youngest daughter, THANK YOU again for reading our story, and any help you can offer no matter how small would be very much appreciated.
#GetBellaBetter
THANK YOU!!
Organizer
Christopher Davidson
Organizer