Trapped – Please help

Hi, I am a 49 year old husband and father to a beautiful 5 year old girl.

My wife and I both suffer with depression, and my wife also has phisical illness.

We find ourselves un-employable, so we are both self employed, working hard doing what we can, when we can, and are managing to scrape by. I also give back by being a local councillor, serving on the board of governors at our local school, and doing voluntary work to raise money for charity. 

We try very hard to not let our daughter be affected by our ailments and our financial position,and she is growing into a confident and popular person. 

My problem is this. We are trapped in a bad debt situation and have been for years now, and it is stopping us moving forward. We took advice from the debt counselling service and they managed to get the debts placed 'on hold' so we do not pay interest on them, just a token payment every month. This did at at least stop them spiralling out of control, but has created a trap that we cannot get out of. 

We have managed to clear around £7,000 of the debt over the last few years, but our income has been declining, and the costs associated with our daughter are rising, making reducing the debts ever more difficult. This is having a detromental effect on both mine and my wife's health.

I cannot imagine how to create a reward for this plea, other than to give genuine thanks to those of you that donate. Once the weight of the debt is lifted I hope to set up a ministery to provide pastoral support to people with no religion. I think that could be a good use of my life, and could demonstrate my thanks.