#GetSamToCollege

Please help me to live the life a 16-year-old young person deserves...

Do you understand the word equity? It means giving every person what they need to have equality of opportunity. In simple terms look at it like this... you can probably pick up a glass of water if you're thirsty. I need a straw or I can't drink it. Different offers, same outcomes. I need support all day every day. To live an equitable life, I need help 24/7. I'm good with that. But it costs a lot of money.

I want to go to college in September. I need full-time support due to my severe physical and communication difficulties. I have high aspirations and big ambitions.

I have tried and failed to get good quality support in the past, but recently, through working with an amazing recruitment agency who worked for me FOR FREE, I have experienced, for the first time in my 16 years, what it is like to have independence away from my parents with my Personal Assistant, Jack, who has given me a whole new lease of life. He's in the photo next to me on the stage when I was giving a speech at the North East Youth Symposium last month.

My local authority has really let me down. They have not adhered to legal timescales and have, in the end, refused to give me the support package I need to start college on 2.9.24. I am devastated. The budget I have been offered is not enough to maintain the wage my current PA is on and is back down to the rate that I have tried and failed multiple times to recruit with.

My parents support me as much as they can. My mum gave up work years ago to meet my care needs and my dad puts all he can into a fund for my future so I can get the care I need as an adult. They can't fund the shortfall in the funds.

I am asking for no more than I need to top up my offer for the next academic year to be able to keep my current PA and recruit another to be part of my team.

I have been a disability advocate for years and am also a youth councillor. I have my own company, Dream Big Live BiGR, with ongoing campaigns to better the lives of disabled young people and their families. Please see my LinkedIn profile to discover what I'm about.

Please support me to get the college and continue with the work I do, as well as realising my dreams.