Wheelchair accessible studio for disabled carer

Hi,

My name is Charles. I'm fundraising for a garden studio. I am a full time carer to 3 disabled children and a disabled husband. As well as this, I have 16 conditions myself. This includes, Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (possible EDS), M.E., fibro, uncontrolled epilepsy (with daily multiple seizures), an acquired brain injury from encephalitis, CVS, several blood disorders and several others.

My life has been reduced to either being sick or caring for others 24/7. I am trying to run a registered business called The Art Orchard, and I sell my work on Etsy and take private commissions https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheArtOrchardByLucy?ref=profile_header . It has gotten to the point where I am having to consider selling all of my equipment, giving up on the stock of products I have, and closing the business altogether because I simply cannot be so much of a disabled full-time carer and a sick person. Even when my husband is here, the pressure to get things done is placed on my shoulders.

I have a son and husband with bipolar, and 2 sons with autism and ADHD. One of them is also moderately learning disabled. The other has a psychotic condition and was recently in hospital for almost 3 months, and it's a constant battle to keep him from having to bw admitted again. My husband has had to be hospitalised in psych units a dozen times and I am his sole advocate.

My husband works up to 37 hours per week, using a time table which ensures there is always someone home for me. But that means that the majority of my kids' care falls to me. K am constantly in touch with social workers, education settings, medical services, and trying to help them have hobbies to cope with their problems, such as bouldering and drum lessons. I spend half of my nights awake ensuring my son is okay. I don't sleep until he sleeps because of the psychosis he endures, and half the time, just getting him to accept that his medication won't harm him is an hour long battle in itself- this doesn't even take in the hours of my day spent trying to get them to bathe and dress, keep their spaces clean, or dealing with anxiety around food. My son even sleeps in the day bed in my room because he's too scared to sleep in his own room. I truly am a 24/7 carer, despite being very sick and often hospitalised myself.

I would never trade my kids and husband. My family mean everything to me but I need a corner of the world that is about me. I have been in psychiatric hospitals 3 times now. In 2018, I spent the year either in psych or in the general hospital. There was barely a time I was home. I have CPTSD, major depressive disorder, EUPD, and EDNOS (I starve myself to life threatening degrees when I am stressed). I am covered in scars from theae experiences. I'm scared that, if I don't carve out a corner of the world for myself, I will burn out, become ill and end up in psychiatric care and that this, will in turn, have a horrendous impact on my family.

I need somewhere of my own where I'm not a full time carer, when my husband isn't working and can take his share of the role. I have found the perfect garden studio for myself (as in the picture above). It is £1000. I am asking for the additional funds in order to ensure there is a wheelchair ramp into it, to install it, and so that I can furnish it and make it as seizure safe as possible.

In order to keep my business going, I need space and time of my own. In order to keep myself mentally well, i need space and time of my own. I am very sick. I haven't seen a friend in 3 years. Because of my extreme clinical vulnerability and the pandemic, I don't go to the shops or cinema. I don't have family and friends over. I spend my entire life in just one room, trying to survive whilst giving my all to others. Something has got to give in order for me to keep going, and I really think this space of my own, in which it will be a rule that I am to be left in peace whilst in there, at which points my husband will have to be seen as the main carer, will save my physical and mental health and my business. All I have that is mine is my business. I am desperate to save it. I am desperate to have a corner of the world in which I exist as my own person and in which I can feel that I am some body. I *need* to feel like I'm not on pause, waiting to be needed constantly. I need just a little bit of the world in which I can just be me.

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