Today was a hard day :(

Where to start with today, what a day its been!

It started off as a typical day really, the expected calls for help with food which we managed to fullfil with no problems thankfully.

My friend is poorly at the moment with a chest infection so she needs to rest, she doesnt like having to but has no choice at the moment as she does feel quite ill :(

Then from lunchtime onward it has been so busy and extremely draining.

I recieved an email from a lady whos father is poorly and really just wanting to sound off about how she was feeling about things, all the things you cant say to your family at times like that. We mailed for about half an hour until she felt just a little more able to carry on.

The next mail was from another lady who needed to talk and could she call me, yes thats fine so we talked for about an hour again it was about personal issues and how to deal with it best, I have helped this lady in the past through a v.sad time, I didnt do anything other than be there for her on a daily basis, sometimes till the early hours of the morning, it seemed to help her to know that there was someone there and she is much better than she was but still sometimes just needs to talk.

The next call was from a family with a young child who are facing eviction, they have sadly been caught up in the Wonga loans trap and as much as they have tried to resist borrowing again it seems almost impossible to not do so, this mother got paid on the 5th August and Wongo took the whole lot, every single penny of her wages was taken, the father has just started a new job and wont be paid for 3 weeks, they have little food, little gas and electric and are worried sick, they were in arrears with their rent which by their own addmission is their fault but the mother has felt unable to face the debts head on and was hiding letters it was only when the baliffs turned up that things came to a head.
They cannot pay the rent this week or for the next 3 and were told that if they missed one payment then they were to be evicted without notice as it has already been to court.
I have given them numbers for CAB, CCCS AND CAP, we can help them in the immediate short term with some food and moral support but they needed much more help than we are able to give to we have pointed them in the direction of the help they do need.

The saddest mail I recieved today was from a lovely lady who does a lot of fundraising, she was heartbroken that a little girl of 6 who she was fundraising for to send to America for treatment for a brain tumour has been told that the treatment isnt an option and there is nothing more that can be done, how do you answer a mail like that?
I offered to help in any way I could as the plan is now to send this little girl and her family on one last family holiday to Disneyland.
I just hope there is time, I fear there wont be and that makes me so sad.
We need to address the complete lack of specialist treatment in the UK for children with Neuroblastoma ( paediatric brain tumours) WHY do people have to fund raise £250,000 to take a child to America for treatment, WHY is it not available here?
They would have you believe that this is a rare cancer, I know of 5 children who have had this in the last 6 months, 1 little girl died she was 10 years old and she was beautiful, the 6 year old little girl that needs help right now will also die from this awful awful disease, the other 3 are so far doing well, 2 are still recieving treatment here in the UK and one little boy was treated in Philadelphia after the community did a wonderful thing and raised way more than the 250,000 that was needed, he is in remission BUT like every cancer survivor you live with the possibility that it can return.
If you have a facebook account please spend a little time looking at just how many children have this type of cancer, not just here but all over the world it is truly heartbreaking to read their stories :(

The next mail came from a lady who needed a rant really, she is being questioned about benefit fraud in the morning, she admits to maing a mistake but cannot understand why they have taken it this far as she is willing to make an arrangement to repay what she owes to housing benefit and council tax, it does from what she told me sound like a genuine and honest mistake rather than a deliberate act and in fact they would not have known has she not called then and alerted then to the fact that they were in fact paying her too much so when they looked at it it seems there was an overpayment last year for approx 5 months, this years is now sorted, it probably adds up to around £200 give or take a few pounds and leaves the question of is it cost effective to question under caution someone who has readily admitted to there being a problem and also willing to reply any monies due?

My final mail for today came from another lady who is unemployed, doesnt want to be but has been a single parent for a number of years, she has few qualifications and feels as though she is getting nowhere, we chatted via email for a while and I explained to her about the Enterprise allowance scheme which sadly she had never heard of via the job centre, how sad is that, that they arent tellig people or exploring if it might be a possibility for them to start something for themselves, she seemed more positve when we said goodnight, she like many others that have to sign on doesnt sleep the ight before for worrying about what if their job search isnt quite right and they get sanctioned, terrible way to have to live in constant fear of having no money and not knowing where to turn.

I know some people will read this entry and think this cant be true, every single word I write is 100% true.
I dislike feeling the need to write a blog BUT if it the only way to make people see the realities of life for millions of ordinary people here in the UK then I wont stop.

I want people to know and to at least try to understand just how hard life can be for some people, even some that dont outwardly show how hard it is.
We need a change in this country, WE ALL need to start caring again.

I am shattered now, it is almost 1am, I have been up since 8am and now need to unwind after today ok yesterday really, but please do read and take just a little part of what I am saying away with you, it will cost you nothing but it can make a huge difference if we all talk about what is REALLY happening instead of the the press would have us all believe!