A Spell for the Unwell

WHO ARE WE?

A Spell for the Unwell is a charity created in order to financially and emotionally aid and support young adults through life changing illnesses.

OUR PURPOSE

The charity is set to provide emotional and financial support to individuals who are finding it difficult to adapt, when their lives are changed through illness. This is provided primarily in the forms of emotional aid via charity support groups and financial aid via fundraising. The charity also aims to raise awareness of illness in young adults (aged 18-30) and provide advice.

OUR OBJECTIVES

We provide emotional support for individuals struggling with illness, through organised support groups, online communication and face to face meets. We aim to raise as much money as possible, in order to help support young adults (18-30) through illness; an age range which we feel is sometimes overlooked. Money is distributed on a personal one to one basis. The charity provides financial support by ‘sponsoring’ individuals. For example, where receipts are given, the charity will reimburse prescription charges, travel costs to hospital, items which may have been bought to help make life more comfortable.

WHY WE ARE HERE – KELLY’S STORY

"My name is Kelly McFadden, I am a 23 year old girl from the Manchester area. At the beginning of this year I became poorly over night with a problem with my appendix. Unexpectedly, my life completely changedfrom this moment onwards. My body reacted badly to the illness, and one by one my organs began to play up, including my heart. For the last six months I have spent the majority of my time in and out of hospital, undergoing treatment, having procedures, or just generally being too unwell to do anything. My digestive system shut down as my body went into trauma, so I have been unable to eat for the majority of this time, and my weight plummeted to around the 5 stone mark. It was thought I needed a machine installed into my house in order to tube feed me permanently. My bowel also begun to shut down and is causing me considerable problems. The blood is not flowing around my body properly, meaning the oxygen via haemoglobin is not getting to my brain efficiently, causing a large amount of pain and some problems, which means I may need an oxygen machine installed into my house. Over the last few months, unexpectedly, I have managed to get back on my feet. I have been on a high calorie liquid diet which has brought my weight back up to over six and a half stone, I am able to get around more, and can even go into work for a few hours a week! It has been a struggle, and I know without the support from my family and the friends around me, I would not be in the stronger position I am in today. One day I said to my sister, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could do something to help other people who might go through something similar.'and so the idea was born."

THIS CAMPAIGN

Neither Kelly nor any of the A Spell for the Unwell team ever imagined that idea would take off and turn into the incredible progress we have made in the past year. We are absolutely thrilled and excited about A Spell for the Unwell, and we hope you can share our excitement too!

In a months time it will be 1 year since Kelly founded A Spell for the Unwell, and we are nearing our target of raising enough to both continue to help those we support whilst registering A Spell for the Unwell officially as a charity. We have, thanks to the kindness of those who have donated already, provided financial and emotional aid to many individuals over the past year (you can see some of these stories on our website and Facebook page) and this final push will mean we can officially say that we can continue to support people for years to come. Your support and donation, no matter how small, is making and will continue to make a HUGE difference to peoples lives. Thank you all so much!