Help a BoM Member in Need

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Ladies and Gentlemen of the Boards o' Magick community:

For those of you who may not have followed 8people's blog, you should be aware that her condition is making it difficult for her to properly attend to her studies at the university. She needs an electric wheelchair and doesn't have the means to cover the expense herself.

When we have a member in need, we like to do what we can to help. That is why we are asking for people to donate what they can to help defray the costs of a new chair. We're not telling anyone that they need to do this, and no one will think negatively of anyone who doesn't participate for any reason whatsoever. That being said, if you do participate, please understand that you will have 8people's heartfelt thanks and the good feeling of helping someone else.

We asked 8people to put together a brief summary of where she's at, which we reproduce here:

I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Type 3: Hypermobility. This means I have a genetic condition that affects the soft tissues in my body - mainly the tissues holding my joints together. It is a condition that has got worse as I have gotten older and now affects every joint in my body. I ended up on crutches at a young age where I kept falling over and five years ago ended up in a wheelchair where walking was getting too difficult. I have now reached the point where I can no longer push myself in my chair and I can no longer lean on crutches.

I'm living on my own to attend university and my immobility is getting in the way of my studies, I am often too tired or hurting to be able to have my full attention in class. I need an electric chair that can handle the awkward roads and paving of where I live so I can get to my university and other places around the town.

A new wheelchair would make a huge difference for me, so I would be incredibly grateful for any help towards it.

While 8people has indicated that she intends to pay everyone back, please understand that she is on an extremely tight budget and that it may take quite a while or in the worst case, not be possible at all. Consequently all donations should be considered as such and not as loans.

Initially the idea was to collect donations directly to 8people's PayPal account, but as she's hit some snags with setting that up, we'll be accepting donations to the SP account and forward her the money afterwards.

The full cost of a suitable wheelchair for 8people's needs is very large; in the region of 10k USD. While it is unlikely that we'll be able to cover more than a portion of that expense, we're aiming at collecting at least $1000 to get her started.

For my part, I'll start it off by donating $50 and setting up 8people with a lifetime SPS account. Additionally, all the BoM members who donate and don't have a custom avatar/portrait + title yet (or want to change) will be able to select them as a small thank-you from the SP team.

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Now, to sum up this long post in a few words:

1. We are collecting donations for a new electric wheelchair that one of our members, 8people, needs to be able to move around without too many restrictions.

2. Donations collected to the SP PayPal account will be forwarded to 8people.

3. Please list your BoM user name in the donation notes so that we know who to thank!

4. Donate via PayPal here. Having a PayPal account is NOT required to donate.

If you would like to send money to 8people some other way, please contact her via a private message.

If anyone has any questions, please post them in this thread.

Thank you!

 

I promise not to be offended if she tries to pay you back, Silvery!

 

Silvery, definitely, I'll be keeping this thread updated as donations come in.

Currently $20 has come in from Kitrax, $100 from Montresor and $100 from Silvery.

The current total is $270 (along with my $50).

We're off to a great start!

 

$50 from Saber now makes the total $320.

 

Any kind of donations are very welcome, even if only $5 - every bit helps!

 

I don't know that a specific chair has been identified, but in the original post it was estimated to be in the region of $10K for the type of chair she needs. Perhaps 8people has something more concrete in the way of a figure...

 

Thanks to a $100 donation by Gaear, our total is now $420!

 

Kilted Crusader has added $30 to the cause, which brings the total to $450!

 

Thanks to a VERY generous donation of $200 by Blackthorne TA, the total is now $650!

 

Thanks to Cap'n CJ's $50 contribution, we're now at the $700 mark!