52 Lives

#510 Sylvia

Request: Donations / Gifts from a wishlist / Kind messages

This week we'd like to help Sylvia and her three children (aged 8, 11 and 12).

The two eldest children lost their dad suddenly in June in a really traumatic way, and the impact on the whole family has been devastating. Sylvia had to take unpaid time off her admin job to support them, and that period without income started a downward spiral.

Unexpected car repairs and paying for childcare over the summer holidays tipped things over the edge. Sylvia started relying on buy-now-pay-later credit apps and now the repayments have snowballed, leaving her with debt that she is struggling to clear on her own. She’s fallen behind on bills and is being threatened with CCJs.

The children’s teacher said Sylvia is a lovely mum who always puts her kids first - but she is exhausted. She's grieving, parenting traumatised children, working full-time, and trying to keep their home life stable. She just needs some help to get out from under her immediate crisis.

We’d like to help pay her overdue bills to give her some breathing room, and also buy Christmas presents for her and the children. It will give them the chance to get on top of things again.

We often share stories of families who have been made homeless and are in need of help - in Sylvia's case, we have the chance to help before it gets to that stage. We need donations, gifts from a wishlist and lots of kind messages.

What We Need

1. Donations: We'll use 100% of your donations to help Sylvia and her children. We've set a target of £1,400 (which is around £1,750 with Gift Aid). This will be enough to cover everything. You can donate online or by text message using the details below (please note the text message number sometimes changes, so please double check it below before making a donation).

2. Gifts from a wishlist: We've set up a wishlist with some Christmas presents. To buy something, please click the link below and choose the item you'd like to buy - just tick 'this is a gift' and choose the 'gift registry address' when you check out and it will be sent straight to the family.

3 .Kind messages: If you would like to send a kind message to Sylvia, please write your message in the form below and it will be passed along (your contact details will not be shared). Or you can post kind messages to: 52 Lives (510), PO Box 3154, Reading, RG1 9AT.

Donate Now

Buy a gift from the wishlist

Offer support

Offer help or send a message

(if you are sending a message of support for the person we’re helping, there is no need to fill in your email address or telephone number)

First name:

Last name:

Email:

Re-enter email address:

Phone:

Message:

How did you hear about us?

Please tick this box to help us protect against spam messages:

Is agreed: Before submitting this form, please click here to read our privacy policy and tick this box to confirm that you have read the policy notice and consent to the processing of your personal data and sensitive personal data.