As some of you may know I've been an ambulatory wheelchair user for over 20 years. In the past I've made do with manual wheelchairs and tried my hardest to continue to walk using crutches as much as possible. Unfortunately not long after we moved to Glasgow in 2023 my last manual wheelchair buckled in the frame and died as we were about to start Glasgow Mardi Gla parade.

Since then both my health and mobility needs have deteriorated. In particular I have developed stage 4 liver failure, which makes sitting upright for more than a few minutes really painful, and have to find either reclined seating or go home to bed. This has meant I have become more and more of a shut-in.

After my Mum died at the beginning of December I realised I could either continue as I am, which mean living my life like my Mum in her 70's was doing, or I could try to find a solution. After a great deal of thought and research I've found a foldable electric wheelchair that can fit in our car, that reclines as much as I need and is durable enough to get me around the local hills here in Glasgow.

Unfortunately like most ambulatory wheelchair users, unless you have to use a wheelchair to get around your home, the NHS will provide no funding towards a wheelchair and we don't have the approx £2,500 to buy this wheelchair and pay it's insurance for 3 years.

So I'm asking all of you, kind readers, if you can spare a little money, or can share this campaign around social media I would be eternally grateful. I'd like to do more than be tethered to the car and the 20 metres or so I can walk to and fro it. I miss all of you and feel terrible that something as basic as a wheelchair has stood between my being the social butterfly I am and all of you.

Much love, Liz