Fight for my home!

My name is Debbie Perry, I am (just) 60 years of age and I had a beautiful home in New Brighton, Wallasey, UK.

I have worked with children and young family’s all of my life, from being a youth worker for many years in the Huyton area to working in children’s homes. The youth of today and community has always been an important and huge part of my life. I am still in touch and now friends with many of the children I worked with, my kids, as I called them back in the day!

So my nightmare began 7 years ago when I was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. For those that don’t know what this is, it is a terminal and progressive illness causing the degeneration of the nerve cells in the brain. Once symptoms begin, my life expectancy averages between 10-20 years, with symptoms worsening throughout this time. For perspective, symptoms cause loss of the ability to do basic tasks, even down to eating. As you can understand, this news completely floored me in more ways than you can imagine. Never have I had to look my own mortality in the eye before, and my whole world collapsed around me.

As well as my recent diagnosis, I unfortunately separated from being in a long term relationship. Due to the heartache I was facing, my family stepped in to help me. My niece, Rebecca, who is a social worker, moved into my home with her 3 children. They lived with me for 18 months, rent free, with 0 contribution. During this time, Rebecca advised me to make her my Legal Power of Attorney. I thought she was trying to alleviate some of life's general stresses so I could concentrate on rebuilding my life after the recent circumstances. I trusted her. This was my first big mistake. Once this was done, she took over all my money, banks, and the majority of my freedom and free will was stripped away. She would not even allow me to purchase items of my choice.

The following decision that I was forced to make is the one I regret the most. Rebecca convinced me to sell my property to my brother, Mark, for £1. The property I had worked so hard for, had bought on my own with my hard earned money. This was apparently done ‘in my best interests’, with the transaction to be reversed as soon as I decided.

Over the following months, Rebecca and her children left my property, and I finally had my house back to myself. I found myself again, I could have my friends and loved ones around, and I was introduced to a mental health team and a professor of Huntington’s to support me through my illness. I spent a lot of time learning about my illness and I learnt I could live with this, and I would fight all the way with medication and support behind me.

As I grew stronger, both mentally and physically, I found I was back to the independent me. I felt my life was back on track, so I asked Mark and Rebecca that I had decided I wanted my home back. It was then that I realised what a huge mistake I had made trusting Rebecca and Mark. They said no, with no reason or justification, just no. For the last 4 years, I have fought tirelessly to get my home back to no avail. They have completely ignored solicitors letters, medical professionals and other family members. They go from ignoring me in the street, to shouting abuse and have physically attacked me. My niece has even tried to get me sectioned, after we had been no contact for 3 years.

I could write pages of my story, and for anybody who hasn’t read the depth of the above, the short story is – I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to a terminal diagnosis. My niece, her mum and one of my brothers have all taken advantage of me at my most vulnerable, and have robbed of not only my home, my independence, my pension and worst of all, they have robbed me of time. Time that I won’t get back, time that is increasingly becoming more precious and limited.

I am now here, a proud strong woman, who has quite literally been to hell and back, asking for the public’s help. Not only do I want my home back, I DO NOT want this to happen to anyone else. This has ripped my heart into pieces, let alone the strain it has caused on my family. In addition to this, stress can and is known to affect the course of my illness, and can cause deterioration to happen at a much faster rate.

I now have a solicitor who will take on my case which is going to be extremely expensive, I’m asking for your help to raise the funds to fight for my house!

Help me get justice!