52 Lives

#129 Michelle

Request: Donations / Amazon gift cards / Garden clearance / Messages

This week, we want to help a single mum from Ham who has terminal cancer.

Michelle is 35 years old and has 4 beautiful children - a baby boy aged 6 months, two daughters aged 8 and 9, and a 12 year old boy. They live in a council house in West London.

Shortly after her baby was born last year, Michelle had stomach problems, with pains and lumps in her side. She was diagnosed with liver cancer but they soon discovered that it was in fact bowel cancer that had spread to her liver. Surgery wasn’t an option, so Michelle had several courses of chemotherapy but it failed. Michelle was put in a hospice but left after a few days so she could be at home with her children.

Michelle’s mum sadly died of pancreatic cancer a few years ago, but her sister has been an incredible support to her. She left her job and home in Bournemouth and moved in to help care for Michelle and the children.

Michelle is going through a terrible time. She is so afraid of leaving her children, she is worried about money, and on top of all that she has been trying to raise funds for some alternative treatments to help her stay alive.

We want to do what we can to help make this family's life a little bit easier.

What We Need

1. Donations - to help replace some flooring in their living room, to buy things for her children, and to help clean-up their garden if we can't find a company willing to do it. To make a donation, click the Charity Checkout Donate button below.

2. Gift cards - we have set up an Amazon wishlist filled with gift cards, which Michelle can use to buy clothing and essentials for the children. To buy a gift card, click the link below.

3. Gardening - they need some rubbish cleared from the garden. If anyone knows a company willing to help with this, please let us know by completing the form below.

4. Messages - to send Michelle a card or email her a message, you can write to 52 Lives (Life 129), PO Box 329, Hampton, TW12 9DF or email admin@52-lives.org.

If you would like to read more about Michelle or visit her personal donations page where she is raising funds for treatment, click here.

What We Did

Thanks to all of you, this is what we did:
- Raised more than £1200 to pay for new flooring for their home and to help cover some of their living expenses- Donated £700 in Amazon gift cards, so Michelle doesn't have to worry about buying the children shoes, clothes or other essentials anymore.
- Cleared all the rubbish and furniture from her garden, which had been causing her a great deal of stress. She had

been getting final warnings from the council but had no way of clearing it herselfMichelle and her 4 children are having such a difficult time and your kindness has made so much difference to their lives.Thanks so much to everyone who donated or bought a gift card, to Emma and Rachel, to Thames Rubbish for donating their services to sort out the garden, to TFC Construction , Amber Lester and Phillip Caple for laying the floor free of charge and giving up the time to do it.

Michelle sent these pics of her new garden, and she also made this little thankyou picture from her and her children.