On a summer day last year I was sitting in the hairdressers when I got a phone call from a paramedic telling me to come to the hospital because my mum had had a stroke.

My mum Lynda had at sometime on Wednesday evening had a stroke, it is unclear how many further strokes she had as she was not discovered until Saturday morning, 3 days later!

My fiercely independent mothers life completely changed. She was in hospital for over 3 months. She has brain damage, paralysis in her right arm and mobility problems. She cannot attend to any of her personal needs, make herself a cup of tea or pop to the shops. She has carers 4 times a day. She is 68 years old.

Mum lives 35 miles away and she cannot continue to live in her flat as the brain damage and mobility mean that she is not safe. Her rented flat is not suitable and she is too far for me help with care. She relied heavily on her 79 year old neighbour for extra help and company, but, a month ago he also had a stroke.

We thought that the best thing would be for mum to come and live with us. There is no room in our noisy teen filled house. So we had drawings done to build her a granny annex made for her specific needs. The architect found us a builder who was willing to do the build as a favour to him for £10,000 less than any other quote. We went to the banks and they would not lend us the money, so a friend offered to lend us the money based on the sale of a rental property.

The sale looked liked it was all going through, contracts were about to be signed, the builder was eager to start in the dry weather, so we used all of the money we had (£12000) to begin.

Then the property didn't sell, mum had 2 more falls (one resulting in a fractured arm) which could have been prevented if she had been living with us. We are left with an enormous hole where our back garden used to be. Mum is still miles away without the support and family that she needs.She wants to be with us and is scared that she will end up in a care home. She is only 68 and so where she moves to now will be where she will be for the next 20 years.

If we can raise the money we will finish off the home for Lynda and hopefully the next 20 years of her life can be filled with family and laughter. £28,000 would complete the build to a basic shell and then we would ask friends to help with painting, carpeting etc. Anything beyond £28,000 would go towards getting occupational therapy to improve mums skills and learning.