This week we’d like to help a young care leaver from Wales called Tessa, who has been diagnosed with a serious degenerative spinal cord condition.

Tessa and her twin sister were taken into care when they were little, along with six other siblings. She and her twin were able to stay together, but they grew up separated from the rest of their brothers and sisters.

In her late teens, Tessa struggled with alcohol and was arrested for petty theft and anti-social behaviour. She didn’t turn up to court and ended up spending a short time in prison. It was a scary, horrid time in her life and she went through most of it alone.

Tessa is now 22. She’s been working with a complex needs support team and has really turned her life around. Her support worker told us she has come on leaps and bounds and deserves the chance to build a better future for herself.

But Tessa has had a major setback. She has been diagnosed with a degeneration of the spinal cord. It’s a serious condition that affects her mobility and causes ongoing pain and fatigue. This has coincided with her moving into a flat - the first safe place she has had to live in a long time. She has a small amount of furniture but the flat is feeling very bare. Without family support, it’s going to take her a very long time to get the things she needs to make it feel like a home.

We'd love to help her get set up properly in her new home. Also, in the future, she'd like to work with young offenders and use her experiences to help make other people's lives better. If there is anything we can do to help her towards that goal (training courses etc.) we'd like to help with that too.

Tessa has been through so much pain and abandonment in her life, and we would love to show her there are lots of people out there who care about her. A little bit of kindness right now would make a huge difference for her.

*Name has been changed