Help with electricity bill & disability equipment

Hi everyone, I hope that you're all okay? :)

Let me start by saying a big THANK YOU to everyone for taking the time to look at my page!!

So firstly, my name is Dave, I'm 39, have been severely disabled for the last 16 years, and, unfortunately, have to set this up because of the disgraceful energy increase!! Please see my BBC news article below before reading my rather long page so that you understand why I decided to set this up:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60433755

Me with my kids in 2006, 2 months before my accident ^^^

For those who don't wish to read it, well, the really short version is.. I am in a wheelchair, need round-the-clock care and have neurological issues from a spinal cord injury. Because of this, I need to keep my home at around 24 degrees or I will start to feel unwell. Part of these issues I have is hypersensitive skin from nerve damage, so I cannot wear jumpers/T-shirts very much at all! Because I need my house so warm, it costs a lot in electricity bills, and after the price increase by the Government, well to put it into perspective, my heating is about to be more than my rent!! So a couple of weeks ago, I embarrassingly had to contact the BBC about the desperate situation that I find myself in because of the energy price increase. They felt that it was a severe situation, so they published my story on Feb 18th.

About me:

I have lived in this area of Ceredigion most of my life, I have a great family that really supports me as much as they can, and I have two absolutely amazing kids (young adults) who make me proud every day! :) I used to be a really fun, happy and outgoing guy, tried to see the funny side of life and not take it so seriously. I had a great, and large social circle, loved where I was living (New Quay, Ceredigion) and was really enjoying life to the full!

When I had my diving accident, everything changed in an instant! I was just twenty-three when my accident happened. I had to go to a spinal hospital for a year, re-learning and adapting to what I could and couldn't do, and for the last couple of months, I was there because there was nowhere for me to live! Not a single home in Ceredigion that had disability access was available/existed! So instead of coming home from the hospital, I had to go and live in a care home for six and a half years!! The carers there were the best in the world, it's just that I wanted to go home near to my family and for their much needed support.

Me in Morriston hospital, 2006 ^^^

My bungalow:

A very kind housing association built a disabled access bungalow for me! It has everything I need in a home to cater for my disabilities and wheelchair: Wide hallways & doors, a wet room from my bedroom, spacious rooms, ceiling hoist, remote door opening, and unfortunately, a heating system that will now cost a fortune!

I've lived here for nearly ten years, and it really angers/upsets me that I might have to leave because of electricity costs!

One question that somebody asked was, "Why don't you move?" Well, there are just NO homes out there that have the same amenities as mine. I have looked, and there are absolutely none, not just in this area, but most of South Wales, and I need to be close to my family for their incredible support! If I have to leave my home because of energy bills, with no other bungalows available, I will more than likely end up back in a care home again and away from them :(

My disabilities:

I have a high spinal cord injury (C6 vertebrae) when I broke my neck in 2006, which left me paralysed from the very top of my chest and down, and many muscles in my arms also, including no hand movement (so it's pretty difficult to type).

Part of where the spinal cord is damaged has affected my body's ability to regulate my own body temperature (hypothalamus), so in order for me to keep safe and stop my body temperature from dropping, I need to keep my home warm all year round at about 24 degrees, 24 hours a day.

If I start to get cold, it actually causes goosebumps on my skin, and after a few minutes of that, I start sweating! This makes me feel colder and colder until I am shaking and my arms and head are covered in cold sweat, and the colder I get, the more sweating occurs, and the spasms in my body get tighter. If this happens, I literally have to sit in front of a fan heater for an hour or so and drink hot fluids to bring my temperature back to normal.

Another one of the issues that has affected me since the accident is hypersensitive skin! Areas of my arms and neck are very sensitive, so much so that I cannot wear jumpers or t-shirts as the sensation feels like sandpaper rubbing on those areas, and because of this annoying reason, I am topless in my home for 99% of the time(poor neighbours!) Otherwise, I could easily put on a jumper and save myself thousands of pounds a year!

Also, I have to take over 200 tablets a WEEK for various issues to do with my injury! They affect me physically and mentally, which leaves me feeling weak, unable to eat, have constant brain-fog, it's not great :(

One of the more dangerous issues that I have is that I suffer tremendously from a condition called

Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD)(https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/health/secondary-conditions/autonomic-dysreflexia) and it can lead to a stroke, cardiac arrest, seizures, retinal haemorrhage, pulmonary oedema and even death if untreated. It's terrifying when it happens and is frustrating that I get it worse than most nurses have seen, and it rules my life! Everything I do revolves around a risk assessment of that occurring and trying to keep it at bay!

It often occurs when I travel, so I can usually travel around ten-fifteen miles, and that's it! If I need to travel further, I must stop for an hour or so, let the pounding headache go away, wipe the cold sweat from my arms and head, let my body spasms settle a little, then start to travel again, then stop again after fifteen-twenty minutes, wipe the cold sweat from my arms and head again, etc. etc. It's not a great way of living, and it can be very depressing not being able to travel somewhere, even meeting friends, who I rarely ever see because of this AD! Most of the time it's too much and I don't go. Also, if I go out, I have to wear a t-shirt, so most of the time when I'm out, I cannot really enjoy as I'm just thinking about going home as soon as I can, so I can take it off again!

Me and my daughter a year after my accident ^^^

The issues above are all helped with my heating at around 24 degrees, which unfortunately is what costs me so much

Also, an unwanted operation on my right arm didn't have a great outcome and made my right arm weaker than my left, so I cannot push in a straight line anymore. So, I was trying to save, slowly, a few pounds here and there, to fix/buy new E-motion wheels (motorised wheels on my wheelchair that help me push, because my tricep muscles in my arms are also paralysed), but any hope of saving up for this, or any of the disability equipment that I need, has gone with the energy price increase and I will never be able to afford without help :(

I just don't know what else I can do!! The Government has completely failed me and is why I'm embarrassingly on here asking you, the public, for help.

In my home, annoyed that I might lose it ^^^

Anyway, if you have made it this far, thank you so much for viewing my long page! I just want to give people as in-depth a detail as possible without getting too personal, so you know everything that your generosity will help me with.

In all honesty, the idea of creating a crowdfunding page didn't even cross my mind. The idea was to raise awareness so that more people could come forward to put pressure on the Government to do something, but I wasn't expecting such an overwhelming amount of support and some offers of financial help from around the UK, and thought that this would be an easier way for like-minded people to also kindly help if they wish to do so :) I feel incredibly embarrassed about having to go public about this entire situation, mind. The fact that I am using credit cards and borrowing money to help pay is even more humiliating! Before this, I was trying to pay back my family, get out of my overdraft, and try to save money to fix/buy those E-motion wheels I mentioned before, but these goals have all but disappeared.

Donations:

I have absolutely no idea how much/where to start, so to shock everyone, I wrote down that huge amount! That amount, however, is just two years' worth of my heating bills, which is just as shocking! I am not expecting anywhere near that from you kind people, still, it highlights just how devastating this energy price increase will be to thousands of us, and I am hoping that by then, way before then, the government would have worked out a better system of help for everyone that is/will be struggling with this increase!

If you would like to help, I would be eternally grateful for any contribution/sharing of this page, and thank you all from the bottom of my heart! But PLEASE PLEASE, DO NOT LEAVE YOURSELVES SHORT!! Even if a pound is too much, I would much prefer it that you share this instead! I know how it feels to be in desperate need, and would feel even worse knowing that you gave your last free money to me instead of buying yourself food or warm clothing, so if this applies to you, please share only! :)

If anything is miraculously raised beyond this (which will be way WAY beyond my expectations), it will be put towards disability equipment that I was trying to save up for, which unfortunately costs thousands of pounds! It's obscene and I don't understand how they can charge so much!

Thank you all once again! I really do wholeheartedly appreciate it! Take care :)

Dave xxx