This is for my lovely sister, Julie. A very giving person, she does a lot of voluntary work for the Caterham community and she didn't know Mum and I are doing this, so it was shhhh! But she's heard in rhe local grapevine and is thrilled.

For those who don't know of her disability, a severe scoliosis (S-shaped spinal curve) resulted in long-term damage in her spine, causing severe and constant pain. Identified too late for teenage remediation, she ended up having two lots of spinal surgery in her 40s, inserting three metal rods to prevent the curve from increasing. She is on the maximum allowance of daily pain killers and has had so many X-rays, she can now only be X-rayed if it's "important enough".

Despite the difficulties the pain causes in mobility, she does all she can in the local community. She set up and now runs two online community forums for Caterham, her home town, now totalling 7500 members, She dons her high-vis jacket to man the local car boot sale, even though she can only sit, not walk around. She's an unpaid Trustee on the local Community Trust, invited to represent the social housing sector. She actively promotes a local registered charity running as an arts, music and soft play centre. Despite her disability, she has been determined to make a difference in the world around her and, as she says herself "Although I'm not in employment, I am by no means idle!"

So, why are Mum and I asking for help for Julie?

Her physical condition doesn't allow her to work in a standard employed capacity, so she manages on very little. She has a small garden, which is her little haven, a really important factor to her health and wellbeing. But, she's unable to look after it. She can't mow the small lawn and her back isn’t capable of lots of bending to do any weeding, so it's become unsightly and unmanageable. To remain living in the house and avoid the possibility of being moved into a flat with no outside space, which we think would badly harm her health, the small garden needs a bit of a re-landscaping. Nothing fancy, just get rid of the lawn, replace with some simple paving, and add some raised beds, high enough for her to look after.

Quotes originally ranged from £2500 upwards, so we're going it alone, looking at raising as much as we can to get the ball rolling, already receiving some wonderful offers of physical help to get the work started and together we can make it happen!

This Justgiving page is being managed by me (Julie's sister) and her Mum. Can you help Julie please? Thank you for reading her story.