My name is Laura Hill, and I am 39 years old from Telford. In 2007, I had an accident at home which could not have been prevented. Due to this fall, I suffered severe trauma to my left arm. I broke my left wrist which did not heal and I was in and out of plaster cast for 6-7 months. The bone eventually healed but it left me with excruciating pain both in my hand and arm. Before this accident, my hand was "normal". Looking at the cover photo on this profile, you can see that I was left with an abnormal hand which no longer had usual functions. I found it a struggle to do most normal things that we take for granted. It also had a big effect on my family life as I have a husband who is a retained firefighter who managed to juggle that and a full time job. He had to sacrifice these to be able to take care of our girls because I wasn't able. At the time my 2 daughters were only 7 and 9 years old. I wasn't able to do the "normal" things that a mother and wife would do. It put a lot of strain on our family especially our youngest daughter Mollie, who has always been really into her football. She plays for the local Telford Girls side but had the opportunity to go to America to pursue this as a career. Due to financial circumstances arising from this accident, she has been unable to go. After this, I had several procedures post-accident to attempt to rectify the problem but no progress was made. I managed to cope within full time work, with the support of my employers. However, it has now had a knock on effect on the other dominant arm leaving only 4 of my fingers working correctly whilst wearing a splint on the right thumb. After suffering for years with this, I took it upon myself (after lots of deliberation and discussing it with relevant medical professionals), to have the lower arm amputated. Not only was it pain relief, but it was no longer a nuisance to my daily routine. However, as it was my informed choice to have this very painful limb removed, the NHS have removed my option for any free mechanical prosthesis. This is why I have taken to Crowdfunding, as I believe that a mechanical prosthesis will definitely improve my life and my family's.