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A plea for help.

40K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  Daz69  
#1 · (Edited)
Firstly, thank you to the Forum team for allowing this.

Ladies and gentlemen.

I am writing this in the hope of some support from my fellow Jaguar owners.

About 4 years ago my 81 year old father in law was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis, and was told that it was terminal. They gave him an expected life of 2-5 years. At the time, they lived in Lincolnshire, about 3 and a half hours away. We knew that at some point this illness will steadily get worse, to the point that he would need full time care.
I couldn't get a job transfer, and so they agreed to move in with us. We had to find a bigger house, and almost 2 years to the day, they finally moved in.
Over time his health deteriorated, and my wife had to give up her job so she could be at home for him. We had a Sue Ryder palliative nurse regularly visit, and we were amazed at how long they spent with dad, as well as us. There was no urgency to their visits.
About 2 months ago his health took a real dip and he agreed to go into a local hospice run by Sue Ryder, the Duchess of Kent hospice in Reading. One of his wishes was to die at home, and they agreed that should he get to that point they would get him back home. However, after 7 days at the hospice, he dramatically improved, and we had dad back. The staff there were absolutely amazing. Nothing was too difficult for them, and they treated him so kindly.
However, his health fell quickly again last Monday, and within 2 days we had the ambulance service out 3 times. At around 0400 hrs on Wednesday 7th September dad sadly passed away in my arms with his wife and daughter with him. He had one other wish which was to not be resuscitated, and we respected that, and let him slip away.

The reason I tell you this is? I decided that due to their care of dad, and the fact that they rely solely on donations and are not government funded, I will try and raise some money for them, and I have been accepted to participate in the Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100 mile cycle ride in July 2017.
I am by no means an experienced cyclist, but I bought a road bike last year to improve my own health, and so far my longest ride is 44 miles. I regularly go out for around 10-20 mile rides, so 100 miles will be a big challenge for me. Furthermore, and just to make it a bit more exciting, I suffer from a rare disorder called Trigeminal Neuralgia. This is a progressive and extremely painful neuropathic disorder which affects the nerves for my face where they exit the base of my brain. It is regarded medically as the worst pain a person can suffer, and even things like brushing my teeth or shaving can trigger a painful attack.
Why am I only raising money for Sue Ryder, and not the Trigeminal Neuralgia Association? The Sue Ryder charity changed my father in laws quality of life as he neared the end, and that is more important to me.

I need to raise ÂŁ500. How do your donations help? Here's how;

ÂŁ14 pays for one hour of incredible care.

ÂŁ35 would provide a complementary therapy session, such as massage, aromatherapy and reiki. These help improve feelings of well-being and alleviate symptoms such as anxiety, breathlessness, pain and feeling sick.

ÂŁ50 provides one session of bereavement counselling for someone struggling to cope with the loss of a loved one.

ÂŁ100 pays for a visit from our Clinical Nurse Specialists to support a patient at home.

ÂŁ500 pays for one day of incredible hospice care for a patient.

ÂŁ3,000 pays for a nurse for a month.

ÂŁ210,000 pays for our Hospice at Home service every year.

Everybody can use the services of Sue Ryder if the need arises. This could be you or a loved one. In our case it was my wife's dad. A lovely man who I thankfully got to know a lot more than most son-in-laws do, and that privilege will stay with me forever.

I know that there are hundreds of people on this forum, so even if you could only donate ÂŁ1, my target will be reached no doubt, and perhaps even surpassed. Anything over my target will be an absolute bonus. Of course I get no money, nor do Virgin Money Giving. Every penny will go to Sue Ryder.
Please click on my fund raising page below, and please, please kindly donate whatever you can for this wonderful team of people.
They changed our lives, and more importantly, they changed my father in law's life.

Somehow, and I'm not sure exactly how because I'm not computer or tech savvy, I will show my training, so you can follow my progress. This may be a link to my Strava account which logs all of my rides. If someone could advise that would be great!

Many thanks for taking the time to read this. Thank you.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GoDazGo

http://www.sueryder.org/
 
#3 ·
A real good cause, I hope you smash your target!

Thread made a sticky :)
 
#4 ·
The beastie boys in the playground have started you off Daz, all the best with the challenge and the donations.

Once again, very sorry for your loss.
 
#8 ·
28.3 miles done today in 2 hours whilst feeling like I had enough after half way. Problem was that I was 14 miles out, so needed to do the same back, LOL :)
 
#9 ·
Donation given. A very worthy cause!
 
#10 ·
Thanks to all that have donated so far. Please, even if it's ÂŁ1, it is still ÂŁ1 more than they had, and it will all be appreciated.

In order to avoid putting loads of Thank you messages on the thread, and making it a very long one, I will just click the "Thanks" button in appreciation of your donation and support.

Thank you.
 
G
#12 ·
Yes come on give the price of a pint or packet of cigarettes, if that is all you can afford, and the more affluent maybe the price of a good bottle of wine. Be as generous as you can ;-)

and do not forget you can tick for the government to add the tax to the total which helps as well;-)
 
#15 ·
Guys, I said I wouldn't post thanks but this is just to let you all know that with Gift Aid included, your donations have just reached ÂŁ202!

Thank you so so much :)