Please help my sister.
This is my elder sister, Sammy.
When she was 14 she started to have pain in her back, and have bouts of what seemed like fever. For many years she was bounced around from hospital to hospital, from Newcastle to London, and that was only due to my mother's constant nagging and sheer determination to get a diagnosis.
She is the perfect older sister.
She has cared for me, taught me so much, and though we are sometimes seen as the opposites of each other, we are also exactly the same in some ways and I love her to bits. My mum has a chronic illness so Sam helped raise me and she is sometimes known as the second mum. She is practical and independent and we always thought by now she would have got her own place and be living her life.
This sadly is not so.
Sam is bed ridden.
She can't walk more than a few metres because she has finally been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos and POTS and an undiagnosed kidney problem that means kidney stones develop every so often. We are certain there is more to her condition, but both of these syndromes are obscure in the medical profession anyway and so there has been practically any decent help for her. She has spent years in pain, gradually declining before our eyes, trying drugs after drugs and doing therapy and all sorts and it breaks our hearts. She had to drop out of Uni because she could not attend enough and she is now also practically wheelchair bound and physiotherapy isn't working.
I come home and spend time with her, assure her she is still beautiful even though the steroids have caused water retention has puffed up her face, that she is not useless and push her around shopping when we go out. Since she had to drop out of Uni she has lost contact with most of her friends and though she will never admit it, I know she is lonely. Most of the time at school people ask me where my awesome things come from and my answer is always "my sister!". She is kind and thoughtful and deserves so much after what she has done for me.
The NHS doesn't have the funding nor the time or common bloody sense to help Sam, so we need to have enough money to see specialists and for many tests. Blood, urine, the works.
My family doesn't have much money at all. I am paying my way through school myself and money troubles is a daily worry.
At this point, though my family is asking relatives and friends if they would like to donate, embarrassing though it may be, I am begging you.
I love my sister and I have seen her screaming in agony and I feel useless as the medical profession have failed one of the people I admire most in this world, so I feel little shame and I hope my earnestness has been heard because I just don't know what to do with myself when she doesn't come to the table for dinner and we all just silently accept the fact that she's too ill to even just sit and chat with her family.
If you have absolutely anything to spare, I would be so grateful if you could donate it so we can try and do something for her, or simply reblog this as much as possible so others might be able to help.
Here is her donation pages and more information from her:
Here.
Thank you so much for the help, you have my heartfelt gratitude.
Edit:
We have £206.15!!!
Sam is going to see a autonomic and neurovascular specialist, Doctor Christopher J Mathius, in London and the first appointment £345 so this will help a bunch!!! Hopefully now we can sort a treatment plan for her POTS so she isn't bedridden constantly!!! We are all so hopeful and it's thanks to you guys!!!
Even if you have only donated a little bit, we really are grateful. We know money troubles, trust me, and every penny is appreciated.
If you could continue reblogging this and donating, it would be great.
Thanks again guys.
