Hey, if you’re reading this, I hope you’ll stick around and hear my story👍
Things have been a real mess lately, and I never thought I’d be putting my story out there asking for help from strangers. I’m 24, a single dad to my 5 year old daughter, and up until six months ago, we were doing okay, just getting by. Not fancy or anything, but we managed. I had a job as a delivery driver, dropping off packages. It paid for our small apartment, and we’d relax in the evenings. She loved to draw pictures, and we’d read these fun adventure books together. Her laugh is the best, it just brightens everything up, and she talks about wanting to be an artist someday. That kept me going through the hard days.
But then it all went wrong. It started when I got into a bad car accident on the job. Some id*ot ran a red light and smashed into my van. I thought I’d walk it off at first, but no health insurance for me, couldn’t afford it plus my ex left a couple years ago and took most of our savings. Ended up in the emergency department, and the doctors said I had a broken leg and some internal bruising. I was in hospital for over a week, stuck in bed with all these monitors going off, while my daughter stayed with my mum, who’s getting older and has her own health issues. The bills hit hard (around 12 grand out of pocket) even with Medicare covering some, for the treatment, scans, and meds. It makes your stomach turn just seeing those numbers. I did some side jobs and sold off some of my gear to pay a bit, but the debt collectors won’t stop. They’re taking parts of my paycheck from this sh*t paying retail job I picked up, leaving us with almost nothing for rent or food. The accident left me messed up. My leg still hurts all the time, I can’t stand for long without it giving out, and driving jobs are out now. The company let me go because I couldn’t get back to full speed, and now we’re facing eviction. The landlord was understanding at first, but he says we have to leave by the end of the month. My daughter doesn’t get why we can’t buy her toys she wants or why I had to sell some of our stuff. My mum helps when she can, but her own costs are adding up. We applied for Centrelink support, but the wait is so long, months sometimes, and meanwhile we’re eating less just so she has something. Last week, I saw her sketching our “new home” on some scrap paper because we can’t afford proper supplies. It broke me. Her being so innocent while everything falls apart.
I need money to get us back on track. I don’t want to do this and I was originally going to ask for a smaller donation but honestly $5000 would be amazing right now. It would clear the remaining medical bills so the calls stop, cover rent for a few months while I look for better work or disability help, and get us food, clothes for her and some toys to make her happy. It’s not a lot to some people, but for us, it’s everything and keeps us from being homeless. I’ve always tried to help others, like giving mates a hand with their cars or volunteering whenever I can. Now I’m the one in trouble, and it’s tough, really really scary to be honest. I lie awake at night thinking about what I could have done differently, maybe gotten extra cover sooner, or not relied on the job so much.
If you’ve ever felt this awful feeling of not being able to look after your kid, or had an accident turn your life upside down, maybe you understand. Even a small amount would help so much, let us breathe a little. She deserves to just be a happy kid, not worrying about this stuff. If you can spare anything, it’d mean the world.
Thank you for listening to my story and my heart goes out to anyone else in my shoes❤️
My PayPal if you can spare anything 🙏 paypal.me/AnTiNoNo