Three years ago our lovely friends Michelle and Sam walked from their house near Kettering to ours in St. Ives to raise money for William. They did an amazing job walking all day and raised lots of money that we put towards a specialist buggy for William. We have used this buggy soooo much and it enables us to do things with William which we wouldn't be able to access with his wheelchair.
On Saturday, Michelle and Sam have decided to do it all over again to raise some more money for William! We are so grateful they have decided to take this on again knowing how hard it was last time!
Thank you so much to everyone that has sponsored them already! We would like to share a bit more about what the money will go towards.
A few years ago we had our home adapted so that William could continue to live in it. We had a through floor lift installed to get William upstairs, four ceiling track hoists and a wet room with shower bench. Now William has got so big we rely on this equipment. We can no longer carry him upstairs or lift him. The adaptations and equipment we have are so important and vital to our everyday lives.
As William has grown, changed and become more medically complex and we have come to completely rely on the adaptations, we have started to find some aspects of it aren't meeting his needs anymore so are applying to have some more changes done. The plans have got through the first stage of approval but we've still got a way to go. Initial estimations are that we are looking at needing around £50,000 for the work. If the plans get the go ahead, £30,000 should be provided by the council which leaves us needing to find around £20,000. If the plans don't get approved we would need to fund the whole thing our self, which seems impossible!
We want to move William's bedroom and wet room downstairs and get rid of the lift, which will require an extension on the side of our house. There are a number of reasons why we want to do this and I won't bore you with the details, but one of the biggest reasons is William's declining respiratory health. William needs regular suctioning when he coughs to stop him choking on his secretions. If he coughs while in the lift we cant get to him to suction. Also when William is unwell he often struggles to sit up and we find his oxygen saturations drop. However to get him upstairs we have to sit him up to go in the lift which is far from ideal. At times we can only get him to bed by compromising his breathing.
We have many other reasons linked to the amount of care we now have in the home, not having enough space for his ever growing medical supplies, increasing size of his equipment (wheelchairs and standing frame), reducing hoist transfers and quality of life.
We want to do everything we can to make sure William will be able to live at home for his whole life, however long that will be and however complex he might become.
