Moving and setting up home due to illness

My name is Nick and the dog in the photo is my beloved dog, Boris.

I recently had to leave my job as a social worker following a massive heart attack and my partner had to retire from his job as a social worker after becoming ill from cancer and radiation therapy.

In lockdown, I was on the extremely vulnerable list due to existing disabilities, but I carried on working from home as a social worker for people with learning disabilities. When shielding started to ease, I became fatigued really quickly. I thought it was because we had been locked in a 1-bedroom flat with no outside space for so long. My mobility disability had worsened due to a lack of moving about. So, I started to work on building up my resilience again. It just didn’t seem to be improving.

In March 2022, I had a massive heart attack and while they did an angiogram and fitted a stent, they diagnosed that I had been having heart attacks for some time and had been unaware. This had damaged one artery so badly that it had completely blocked and had calcified and due to where it was blocked, they were unable to do a bypass. Another artery had severe disease, and another the beginnings of coronary heart disease.

We are currently trying to move to Newcastle (where we will pay less than half the rent of our 1 bedroom council flat in London). However, most of our savings have gone to paying off debt and trying to cure Boris from an on-going ear-infection that he got during the Covid lockdowns (was hard to get him a grooming appointment).

The move will eat up the little money that we do have. There will be no money to decorate, buy wardrobes (this place has built in ones, the new place has none), get carpets, curtains, and the million and one things that need sorting, replacing, or repairing. And we also need to make sure Boris stays healthy. There is no way we would get rid of him, he’s the one good thing we have left.

I am really hopeful that after nearly 40 years of working in care work, nursing, and then social work for other people, that maybe others will see us as someone that they would be willing to help.

Thank you if you can help❤️