Help Georgie to buy an evacuation chair

My name is Georgie and, although I have adult onset complex disabilities, I’ve always lived my life independently.  I have a wicked sense of humour (so my friends tell me) – but it’s not much in evidence now.

I am affected by the cladding scandal and have been actively campaigning for others whose lives have been changed for the worse.  But that’s not why I’m asking for your help and I really hate having to ask – but please can you help me to buy a suitable evacuation chair so that my friends, my family, or my personal assistant can evacuate me safely if there is a fire in my building. 

I really love my flat, the location and the community, but I am stuck in a building that’s so unsafe that there is an immediate evacuation plan for everyone – well almost everyone but not for me! 

Can you imagine living in a building that you can’t escape from or if all exit routes were locked until the firefighters arrived?  For me this is the reality every day and night.  Daily I feel sick and stressed — the impact on my physical and mental health is extremely detrimental.  I go to bed at night scared and worried about what would happen if (or when) there is a fire.  It’s pretty much the same during the day.

I cannot evacuate using the stairs as I use a wheelchair.  The lift can’t be used in a fire so I can’t escape just one floor down even if there is a fire on my floor.  The Home Office says that once every ten days, a fire in multi-storey buildings spreads to two floors or the whole building. 

I am left with no options, other than to wait and see what happens until someone arrives (maybe) to rescue me if there is a fire!



Why? Because my managing agent has repeatedly refused to provide me with a suitable evacuation chair to enable me to escape with everyone else.

I told my managing agent, Scanlans, that I couldn’t evacuate the building five months ago. I asked them for a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) to include an evacuation chair that my partner, friends or personal assistant can use to help me escape immediately if there is a fire. 

Guess what, they refused!  To my surprise, the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services were aware that this had been refused and still didn’t take action!!  In desperation, I asked someone who delivers PEEPs professionally to prepare a PEEP for me, which they kindly did for free! The PEEP identified the right kind of evac chair to keep me safe that my friends, PA could use but still Scanlans has refused to provide it and I can’t afford to buy it myself.



My Mum died in comfort, thinking that despite my complex disabilities, combined with austerity, she’d left me with home security for life, in an accessible flat that I love.

It’s heart breaking that it’s not the case. This situation wasn’t her fault and it isn’t mine. Even though I miss her so much, I’m relieved she isn’t having to go through this. She lived in this flat before me. She was a pensioner reliant on state benefits, who had MS and she died of multiple cancers.

Can you imagine living like this, especially during the coronavirus crisis and lockdown. Hundreds of thousands of us have had no choice so for the first time in my life, I’m asking for help from kind strangers who care.