Thank you for helping me recover from a bad year!

Hi there,

My name is Simon. Thanks for taking the time to view my GiveALittle campaign. I am hoping to raise money to keep myself financially buoyant and cover living expenses while I recover from a bad year and until I can find permanent employment.

Do you know how some people say “This is going to be my year”?

I can definitively say that 2019 has not been my year. Suffice it to say, it has been my “annus horribilis”.

This is a condensed version of my story. I have omitted some details of a more personal nature.

This year has exhausted me physically, emotionally, and financially and it’s only October.

It started back in February when I was evicted from my home of over eight years due to the property being sold.

It was late in May when I started experiencing issues with my health. It started with a case of strep throat and tonsillitis. After that, it was a kidney infection. From this point on, I experienced fevers, chills, and nausea, and heavily reduced my food intake. Despite following doctors orders and taking the prescribed antibiotics, I wasn’t getting better.

My health was still deteriorating. I went to an after-hours medical centre who, eventually, sent me to the emergency department. Several scans and tests later, I was told that the infection had spread internally and that there was a large abscess caused by the infection. I was booked in for surgery to insert a drain into the abscess.

The tests showed that my health issues were caused by a specific strain of bacteria resistant to all the antibiotics I had been prescribed to this point. I was switched to IV antibiotics specifically designed to combat this type of bacteria.

Several days later, I wasn’t improving as well as I should have been. Another MRI (a newer machine this time) showed that I actually had two abscesses, not one. Another surgery to insert a second drain was required and completed.

This was, finally, the point my health started to improve. The abscesses were decreasing in size and the fever/chills/nausea finally subsided, The drains were finally removed and I was discharged from the hospital - 10 days after being admitted.

Later, on the day of my discharge, I was dumped.

Four days later, I was told that I was going to be made redundant from my job of six years.

In September, I had another surgery on my sinuses. Fortunately, this surgery was planned and scheduled in advance. Unfortunately, my recovery from this has not been as fast.

Throughout my recovery, I’ve been aggressively seeking new employment since late-August and have applied for over fifty jobs. Unfortunately, I have not yet been offered a position.

I have exhausted what little savings I had and am now surviving on financial assistance from family and relying on my credit card, but these are not long-term solutions and will keep me afloat for 2-3 weeks at most. I also exhausted my annual and sick leave at my previous job, which had a 'no redundancy payout' clause. This is why I need your help.

If you’d like to support me but aren’t able to do so financially, please consider sharing my page on your social media.

If you have any questions, please follow the link below and I’ll endeavour to respond as soon as possible.