Support Leona with chronic health issues

You will know Leona (she/they).

You might appreciate her many talents already, but what springs to mind for me is her incredible energy – be it zesty or like fire. I know her for her commitment to justice and equity, and the healing needed to make it happen, and for her ability to make connections and bring people together. Leona’s skill in inspiring people to come together is one of the reasons I know her today – perhaps you too. This is a unique quality, and like many of our own, comes with a need for nurture.

Hence why I’m writing to you, Leona’s community, on her behalf now.

Leona and I had a conversation recently in which she described the sequence of events that have led to this: needing to ask her community for some support over the next 5 months. Leona finds it vulnerable to share widely about her situation and ask for help. She's aware that we live in difficult times where there's so much need for support, love, and care everywhere – while resources are limited.

You may or may not know that recently Leona moved to Plymouth. Soon after, she lost a part-time home in her live-in van. She’d invested her savings and a small inheritance in the van, so with it she lost these too. As a consequence, she also lost a new full-time job. After a while of trying to get back on track, she hit a place of deep exhaustion. She’s now going through the process of applying for health-related benefits (a lengthy, distressing, and uncertain obstacle course), concerning chronic health challenges including complex PTSD, while navigating life as a neurodivergent person.

Being an emigrant, without savings, inheritance, or the support of a partner, and with only a little help from a family member who lives in the USA, Leona needs support to relieve the pressure in her life and rest her nervous system. She can do a bit of paid work, currently in a Forest school, but she can't handle the pressure of a more intense, regular job.

Leona needs a stable and safe home environment for her recovery. It's important for her that she stays in her current home rather than moving and navigating new changes – which would most likely lead to more exhaustion. The current Universal Credit system is barely covering Leona’s basic expenses. Her current UC support is around £780/month, with three-quarters of this going on housing. She is in need of access to different forms of nourishment and therapeutic support to aid her recovery process. Ideally, she needs to top up her current income by an additional £500-800/month.

While in recovery Leona would like to contribute to communities as much as her capacity allows. She is especially passionate about co-creating diverse, inclusive, trauma-sensitive, equitable, and strong communities. This passion is one of the reasons she moved to Plymouth where she has joined a number of community projects. She is also a volunteer with Buddhafield, where she's a member of the Inclusivity Circle.

Some support from us now will offer a bit of space for Leona to breathe – not to have to call on her resilience again and again, or override or disregard her needs and capacities and keep masking her life experiences. She's needed to do this a lot over the last two decades, resulting in chronic health issues and deep mental and emotional exhaustion.

What we’re offering Leona, then, is a period of grace. For those of us fortunate enough, grace comes in many forms and hopefully at times when we need it most. Sometimes we can ask for that grace and so this ask comes to you now, as a part of a wide and connected community. Can you – can we – help with a donation to create a period of grace to support our friend through a difficult time? Any contribution you can make to Leona would be gratefully received. Some of it may be financial and some may come in other forms of loving support and connection. And thank you very much to all who have already offered support and love. Leona has received a long-term loan of a car, money towards psychotherapy, and other bits and bobs of financial and loving support.

With love and thank you for reading.

Esther