John’s story
To go from being active to being unable to walk and dependent on others overnight had a huge impact on John’s life. John’s wife had almost lost hope when an application was submitted to Charity Link for a powered wheelchair. Having a powered wheelchair would give John dignity and a bit more independence to improve his and his wife’s daily quality of life.
John’s wife Susan was woken in the middle of the night to find that he was suddenly unable to feel his legs. John was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency surgery to remove an abscess from his central spinal chord. Unfortunately, the operation was unsuccessful and John was left permanently
paraplegic, being paralysed from the waist down.
John had worked all of his adult life through to retirement, and to go from being active to being unable to walk and dependent on others to care for him overnight had a huge impact on his mental health. Susan became his carer and advocate to enable John to gain access to the services and equipment
available to him – this proved a minefield.
Susan had almost lost hope when an application was submitted to Charity Link for a powered wheelchair. As John could operate this himself, it would help him regain some independence and Susan could have some respite from pushing his manual wheelchair. She’d found this extremely challenging and this meant
that they didn’t venture far or often – greatly impacting on their quality of life.
Our expert team identified several external charities, including the Book Trade Charity and the Printing Charity (due to John’s employment history) that we could apply to on John’s behalf. Applications were successful and over £13,500 was raised to purchase both a specialist wheelchair and a riser recliner chair to help with John’s comfort at home.
It is hard for most of us to imagine what John and Susan have been through so unexpectedly – but these items have made a huge difference to both John’s own wellbeing and the quality of life of his wife and family.
Our support with specialist mobility or disability-related equipment (when these are not available via statutory sources) really does change lives.
"It’s fantastic to see all the ways the community comes together to improve the lives of people in need. From undertaking challenges, to dress-up days, quizzes, raffles and cake-bakes, to donating, setting up a regular gift, volunteering or spreading the word, it all helps to ensure people living in hardship are warm, safe and fed and have the basics in life that we all deserve."
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