Fun in Fundraising

Hi All,

Thought I’d give you all a little update on how fundraising is going for Motivation (see Plans for Motivation by clicking here).

Motivation is an international charity who aims to provide wheelchairs tailored to peoples different needs. I have, sometimes, struggled with being disabled and not being able to do all the things I want to because of my health (Bungee jumping, driving, Parachuting) and sometimes forget how lucky I am to live in a Western country that provides wheelchairs and a country that although sometimes lacking in disabled access is trying to become a free and accessible country for all to enjoy.

So, some months back I pledged that I would fund raise for Motivation and help others enjoy the freedoms I sometimes take for granted. Unfortunately my health has been so bad that I’m struggling to get out of bed some days let alone plan big events.

Luckily whilst I’ve been ill friends and family have started, in my honour, raising the much needed cash for wheelchairs!

My friends husband Ben raised £110 in sponsorship by running a 10k race! This is only £30 shy of a whole new wheelchair bought and paid for – amazing isn’t it? Such little money to us is a whole new world to someone else!

My favourite restaurant is The Sunflower Eaterie. The Sunflower is a small cafe’ on Queens Road (just off Southend High Street for locals here is their Facebook page), I take all my friends there for lunches, fry ups and roast dinners. The owners Michelle and Scott are a lovely couple and they hold quiz nights with raffles raising money for charities, and after my piece in the localpaper, they chose Motivation on my behalf!

I went to my first quiz night a couple weeks ago with Mike, My Dad and our friend Siobhan. For £10 you get to enter the quiz and for that you’ll also get dinner too! We had a ball, our team – Three Cripples and a Carer, came 5^th out of 10 teams – not bad eh? The Sunflower will be giving me the proceeds of their hard work in January J.

The Sunflower - Borrowed from Michelle's Facebook

Although I’ve yet to start my fundraising I want to send a huge thank you and hug to Ben (and Helen for “encouraging” him to do the race ;) and to Michelle and Scott for starting to really make a difference to people’s lives and believing in a cause that is so close to my heart!

Family and Friends get ready as I’m planning on hosting a dinner at the Sunflower next spring amongst other things, so get ready to buy tickets!

L x 

Read All About It!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have had a feature published in a local newspaper! A features writer, called Louise, messaged me via Twitter and asked if I would like a feature in the Essex Echo’s New Woman supplement about my blog, conditions and the new charity work I'm planning with Motivation.

Of course I jumped at the chance but then the asked if I would like to write my own feature Dream.come.true!

I’ve had letters in magazines published, poetry included in collection works books and I’ve been a part of school newsletters/papers since primary school but no one professional had ever asked me to write for them before and what made this sweeter was that they’d read the blog and still wanted me to submit a piece!

So yesterday there I was grinning back at myself from page 23, I friends and family bought the paper and sent so many messages of support and had requests for copies of the paper world wide – I felt the love!

If you’d like a read of the article and see it and the whole supplement in a PDF format click here but below is the article text. (Some of you will notice it is slightly different to the one printed – as expected newspapers have to trim and crimp!)

Yes, I’m disabled... but why are people always shocked to find I don’t lie at home moping

Suffering with chronic pain gives you a lot of time to think, when everyone else is at work or asleep and you’re suffering with a long term illness it can take over your life and you can become depressed – but only if you let it!

For the last 20 years I have been suffering from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). I have learned and developed many tried and tested forms of relaxation and distraction methods, from high doses of pain killers to evenings watching Love Actually with a tub of ice cream.

I am generally a positive person and for the last two years I’ve tried using my experience with CRPS, a chronic progressive disease, to write a blog. I wanted to create awareness of the condition and to challenge people’s perceptions of disability. People are often genuinely shocked that I have an active social life, have travelled at far as Australia and that I have a lovely boyfriend, Mike.

I won’t lie, CRPS along with having mild Cerebral Palsy has taken my life in a different direction to the one I’d planned but I’m always fighting disabled stereotypes. I left school at 14, written off by some teachers, but I still managed to pass my GCSE’s with B and C grades and went to college. I was told I couldn’t have an independent future but Mike and I saved up and we bought our own flat at 23. 

I may never have a full time job but I’ll do my best to volunteer and help others, including being Trustee of the Family and Relationship Centre http://www.familyandrelationshipcentre.com/ and Sycamore Young Carers. 

I have a life despite illness, not a life that revolves around one.

I get a lot of e-mails asking how to cope with pain and discrimination but the majority of messages ask how to date or find love, what to do when people stare, how to customise a wheelchair and how to do practical things like apply for disabled discounts and benefits.

One particular night I was online at 4am unable to sleep due to crippling spasms and nerve pain. I came across a statistic that said that 100 million people worldwide cannot afford wheelchairs. Here I was sulking because I couldn’t go out while there are people out there who never leave their homes or have to be carried around by loved ones, unable to lead independent lives.

Although I’m lucky enough to have a wheelchair and a mobility scooter I have gone through periods of illness where I’ve taken to my bed for months unable to leave the house. Although that may be only a glimpse into the lives of the people I’ll be raising money for I can completely empathise.

In this rare selfish moment I felt I should snap out of it and start using my own frustration and pain to do something worthwhile to help others whilst keeping myself going.

After some searching I found a charity called Motivation, an international charity that supports people with mobility effected disabilities, supplying them with customised wheelchairs adapted to their surroundings. This was the Motivation I needed.

I contacted the charity telling them about my blog and my idea to support them; I also pledged to my readers that throughout this particularly difficult phase in my illness I would be fundraising for wheelchairs.

I’ve had some wonderful support for the cause; friends, family and complete strangers sending in ideas, offering services and most importantly – money.

My family, friends and I can only do so much. I have a lot planned for the next few months but I’d love people to get in touch, get involved and help me to aid and support people, giving them a chance of freedom.

Please go to www.ladygogo84.blogspot.com or e-mail Lynsey_Ellard@hotmail.com

Hope you guys like the piece, let me know what you think!

L x

Motivation

As promised I’m finally here to announce that my chosen charity is Motivation – an international charity support people with mobility disabilities. They raise money to give people high quality but low costing wheelchair specifically designed for developing countries and their sometimes difficult surroundings and environment. I felt that not only was I moved by the stories and their work the fact that they’re called Motivation – kicked me up the butt!

With chronic pain it’s so easy to become insular and a selfish, forgetting that is always someone worse off that really needs your help!

Since I’m becoming housebound I plan to start small; specially designed seat cushions that relieve pressure (and helping prevent sores) are £15, spare wheels are £25 and a full wheelchair with motivation is £135, so I would like to start by raising enough money for 1 cushion, 1 set of wheels and 1 wheelchair = £175 to ease us in.

Who’s with me?

Now when I started to discuss raising money for wheelchairs (when I found out that up to 100 million people need one!) I asked you all for idea’s;

There were the simple classics sent in: bake sales, sponsored silences, swims, sports & fasting. Offers of; Pub quizzies, gigs, raffles, pamper parties, make overs, tea parties, body shop, Ann Summers, Pamper Chef and Vie parties have been very popular choices too! I cannot wait to be involved with all of the above and plan to do as many as we can possible fit in!

The more unusual suggestions were surprising; sponsored diets, both Mike and I have done them in the past, they completely motivational – your charitys money is held hostage by your scales – I’m only 3lb away from my goal weight but does anyone want to volunteer?

From where I sit – the idea being that if you are completely able bodied that you’ll be sponsored to spend a week in a wheelchair – going to work, socialising and living your daily life seeing what it’s like from where I (and millions of others) sit. I very interesting idea, as those who did these would be offered a guest post on Diary of Freedom – almost a social experiment.

It has been suggested that I compile a booklet/PDF of my favourite blog posts or write a completely new piece for this project. Would you guys pay to read my work?? It’s something I’ll have to think about!

For all the wonderful suggestions above there were some damn right odd and frankly disturbing; one anonymous reader suggested I walk for a day, now I thought it was a sarcastic message, but the tone of the message and reasoning “I would appreciate my wheelchair” makes me think they were deadly serious. If I could spend a day walking around I wouldn’t be writing this blog and I’d be travelling the globe walking miles and miles and miles writing about this wonderful world!

Another wrote in that after seeing Cherry Healey’s how to get a life documentary on prejudice and finding out that disability is a niche’ in the adult entertainment industry that I “could make a killing for yourself and the charity”. Surprisingly this is not the first time this has been suggested!

So, thoughts? What do you all think about these ideas? Tweet me here, Facebook me here, E-mail me here or leave a comment below!

L x

For more information on Motivation go here, Tweet them here or see their Facebook here