Help give Jessica her independence back

 

 

She was completely bedridden for over a decade and when I met her in 2015, she was just beginning to be transferred into a wheelchair via hoist because she couldn’t hold her body up. 

 

 

I remember being completely taken with how incredibly positive she was. She never felt sorry for herself and one of the first things she told me about was the millions of other M.E. sufferers around the world who were entirely isolated and being mistreated.

 

 

“I am one of the lucky ones.” She concluded. 

 

 

We got married in 2017 and with the help of a pretty incredible (which we know is rare in the M.E. world) set of physiotherapist, occupational health therapist and her GP, Jessica started to make some amazing improvements.

 

 

In 2017 she also got help from an incredible charity to purchase a second hand power wheelchair, which she called Indie (short for Independence). Indie completely changed not only Jessica’s life, but mine too. I could walk hand in hand with my wife for the first time, she could choose which direction she was going…it literally gave her independence back into her life. 

 

 

We have made some incredible memories thanks to Indie and being able to save the limited energy she had to move, meant she was actually able to experience life having been trapped for so long. I mean she even managed to go to London to the theatre! 

 

 

In 2019 we welcomed our daughter Felicity and Indie enabled her to make so many priceless memories as a trio. Felicity is adorable because she walks alongside her mummy when she is in Indie and enjoys having rides on Jessica’s lap. 

 

 

But on Jessica’s 30th birthday, disaster struck. We were on our way home and Indie started to repeatedly steer Jessica into the road. It was too unsafe to drive any further but when we went to get it fixed, we were unfortunately told that it wasn’t fixable. 

 

 

“It’s like losing a part of my body.”

 

 

Losing Indie has meant that Jessica has lost her freedom. She struggles to get outside in her manual wheelchair because it doesn’t give the right support. Her pain levels have tripled and she is now having to take a lot more medication. When she does push herself to go anywhere in her manual chair, it’s horrible to watch her suffer so extensively. 

 

 

“A wheelchair is not a luxury, it is a necessity”

 

 

Jessica started a charity called Share a Star in 2010 when she was in hospital, she wrote her book A Girl Behind Dark Glasses over many many years, which won The People’s Book Prize 2020. She is a M.E. advocate and has campaigned for better treatment for M.E. sufferers, which she hopes to be able to do more of in the future. 

 

 

With your help, I would like to fundraiser to get Jessica another power wheelchair to replace Indie. We have found one that looks like it will be perfect, the cost of buying it ourselves is unfortunately not quite possible at the moment, so I have set up this GoFund me page to try and make this happen.

 

 

Thank you so much for reading this page. It would mean the world if you were able to share this further.