Help us with our Garden

by Zoe

We are residents with Spire homes.

We live in a 3 bed bungalow and I (mother) am a double amputee with spinal injury with my able bodied husband have adopted a 10 year old.

Elizabeth was placed with us in April 2010. She gets Middle rate DLA £197 every 4 weeks. She has been diagnosed with High Anxiety Disorder, Attachment disorder which mirrors Autism and PTSD.

Elizabeth has flashbacks of the abuse she encountered with her birth family until she was 7 years old and taken into Foster Care.

We cannot allow Elizabeth to play out side like a normal child and cannot go to play at other people houses as she can display inappropriate behaviour.

We have asked our housing association to repair our back fence as we thought we had an Ivy hedge at the back (We moved in the October 2007) but there is a fence in between the hedge and the fence has grown through it.

What we really need is 3ft fence along the left hand side of the garden and 6 ft fence at the back of the garden and we cannot afford to do this ourselves. We have a back gate but only as a deterant.

We would also like to remove all the gravel out of our garden and replace with grass so Elizabeth has a place to safely play.

Adoption was a long shot for us and didn't think it was an option when we moved in in 2007. I do not want to have to move again but just want my daughter to be safe.

Can you help?

ANSWER:

Hi Zoe Have you applied to the Family Fund? This is a charity which helps families with disabled children. They are very flexible and would consider a request for the fencing.

Quite a bit has been written on Disability Grants about the Family Fund with other parents comments. Just follow the links.....

Family Fund Grant- comments from other parents

Family Fund - details on the charity

For the garden itself it would be worth looking at ....

The Well Child Charity and The Gardening for the Disabled Trust. More details can be found under Gardening Grants.

If you have the energy it might be worth trying to capture the imagination of a local group (Rotary, Lions, Round Table, Scouts) for a "Garden Makeover" - perhaps with the promise of some publicity in a local newspaper.