Can you help?
I can’t believe I’m writing this but I hope that I as I write my story down it will help my mental wellbeing – and maybe someone out there will be willing to help. If that someone is you then thank you so much in advance.
I have always been that nice guy that always helps others – whether that’s family, friends or complete strangers asking for spare change in the street. Some have said in the past that I’m a bit gullible but I have always tried to see the best in people.
A few years ago we lost my Dad to a brain tumour. He was diagnosed in the June and he passed away in the January. He was the ultimate nice guy who couldn’t do enough for other people and I’d like to think that a large part of my outlook on life is down to my Dad.
During my Dad’s last few months I signed up to make monthly payments to various Cancer and Hospice charities (my little way of feeling that I could make a difference). This continued after Dad passed but the requests from other charities then started to come in. At first I was paying £50 per month but as the requests came in, it soon ran into the hundreds.
All of these charities said it was easy to cancel my contributions but every time I phoned I was talked into paying for another month – or two, or more.
I was already concerned that things were getting out of hand when I started drawing out cash from by credit cards to fund the donations – but then Covid hit. I was lucky as I was put on furlough instead of losing my job – but it still meant that I was paying an even larger chunk of my ‘income’ to the charities. I figured I was still in a more fortunate position than those that had lost loved-ones to the virus.
So, now we are in 2022, the headlines are full of stories about the cost of living going through the roof and I have finally plucked up the ‘courage’ to tell the charities that I cannot continue to pay. They have (mostly) been very understanding but this has still left me with thousands of pounds worth of credit card debt that I cannot afford to pay off.
I don’t begrudge the money that I have donated over the years – but of course a lot of it wasn’t actually my money to give.
Unlike others on this forum, I’m not asking for a specific amount – but rather if you feel that you could contribute to my fund then any donation (no matter how small) would be hugely appreciated.
My skills are mainly Excel based so if there is anything I could offer in return in terms of spreadsheet help then please do let me know.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and hopefully, with your help, I can go back to being that helpful bloke (but this time I’ll offer my time rather than money).
My PayPal.Me address is below…
