Giving my mother a chance for healthy life

Hi all,

This campaign is dedicated to my mother who is currently suffering from 3 major health problems. I never thought that I would be forced to reach out to the world with request for help but it has come point in our lives when it's the only option available.

My mother Ingrida is 53 years old. She is slowly deteriorate medically and I am unable to do anything to help her in my current circumstances. We live in Portugal at the moment, but originally are from Latvia. 12 years ago my mother moved to UK because there was no future for her back home - she doesnt have education or any profession and all her life she was working in random low income jobs to support our family. In UK, as many of unskilled immigrants from Eu she been working all these years in factory or cleaning jobs. It wasn't much but she was able to support herself and able to receive required medical help via NHS system without need to pay for it.

First major issue which she started to develop was hyperactive thyroid as many other women after the age of 40. Doctors were reluctant to do anything else apart from trying various medications to reduce down the thyroid function and even though certain surgeries, for example iodine injection were discussed , it has never went anywhere. For years she was exposed to toxicity of thyroid medication, increased hormonal disbalance and massive pressure on cardiovascular system. All that combined resulted in mental illness. She is talking to herself out loud and doctors identified that as mild case of paranoidal schizophrenia.

Nevertheless,she carried on with her life and was working in the food production actory where she was exposed to very cold temperatures and long 12 hours work shifts. These conditions are hard for anyone and apart from other problems, 2 years ago she started to rapidly lose eyesight in her left eye. In one of her first jobs in UK, she was working as cleaner in the restaraunt and damaged the cornea of the eye with a splash of caustic soda. Work in cold enrolment in the factory wasn't helping much either.

All this time I was hoping that one day I would find a stable permanent work myself and would be able to give her much better life where she could stop working and just rest from all of that and dedicate her time to treatment of her conditions. It finally happened in 2016 where I was offered a job and relocation to Portugal. I moved there hoping that at first convenient opportunity I would take her to live with me. And it happened faster than I thought - after 5 months she was made redundant. Her factory decided to fire 150 workers and she didn't passed the evaluation to keep the job because her English wasn't sufficlient enough and her mental condition was quite bad at moment - she could randomly start speaking to herself out for the blue.

This was a moment where I didn't had a choice but to take her to live with me in Portugal. Because she was left alone, sick, jobless and without any chance of being able to find anything and carrying on with simple basics of life - paying the rent etc. To be able to accommodate her here, I was forced to find a flat for us. Unfortunately, Lisbon is very expensive city to rent and salaries are in general quite low. My job salary is around 850 euro after taxes, which is not too bad for Portugal, but it's not enough for family of 2 forgein people where one person has major medical issues.

At the moment, I pay for rent and bills 650 of my salary which barely leave us funds to survive during the month where every single unexpected expense comes as a major blow. While in UK there was NHS where my mother was able to get free treatment, Portugal has completly different medical system where everything need to paid for. It wouldn't be a problem, but due to certain bureaucratic issues, my mom can't get social number which is required for access to public health care (because she doesn't work and fully dependent on myself) and I am unable to add her on private heath insurance plan which is provided by my work - because it only accepts spouse and children but not parents.

That was the brief introduction to the current circumstances which we are living now to help you understand situation better.

Over last couple of months, my mother's health started to get worse - she has serious infection in her eye which has no sight - causing a lot of pain. Her thyroid function is getting worse too. She can't sleep from pain, got affected by hormonal disbalance - mood swings, getting waves of body temperature changes and at some points her mental condition gets worse and she sits all day taking out loud to herself.

It's very scary for me, because I understand that I can't afford to do anything to help her. Every visit to private doctor costs 70-80 euro. They only can re-prescribe her same medications she is talking (7 different drugs at the moment). Cost of clinical analysis or any additional treatments are totally unbearable for my budget at the moment. After working here for 1+ year, I have good chances of further career progression and already due to be promoted. But all that would not help to bring us from this abyss of hardship and living a poor life where I am forced to see how my mother suffer from pain every day and unable to do anything to get her required medical help. I very tried everything I could to find finance to pay for her full treatment, but because I am forgeinger and haven't been long enough in the county, not a single bank is willing to lend me anything.

Therefore, I am opening this fundraiser campaign to obtain funds to save my mother.

• For full clinical investigation of her current thyroid condition - various tests, re-evaluation of medication she is taking and ambulatory stay under care of endocrinology doctor to prepare her for thyroid surgery;
• Regular checkup in eye clinic for her damaged cornea. At first, to stop pain and regular infection with future perspective of corneal graft treatment;
• Hormonal disbalance and mental illness treatment. She requires a long term course to reduce effects of schizophrenia and bring her overall mental condition in order ;

After enquiring about prices around Lisbon's private hospitals, I've defined approximate cost for all treatments. This amount should be sufficient to ensure all necessary steps related to improvement of my mother's health.

I would thank everyone who would be helping. I wish I wouldn't need to ask the good people of the world to help, but I can't see another way how I can save my mother and get her to enjoy the life without pain and medical problems..