Dear Freemasons

I just wanted to take a moment to formally say thank you for your support last year. How would we have managed without it?

Previous to having children I was of the happy belief that we as a country looked after our most vulnerable. To find myself in the devastating predicament of having two sick children was hard enough. But when reality dawned and I realised the help they needed had to be self funded I was distraught. I was unable to work because of the severity of my oldest child’s condition and the therapies and medical necessities he needed quickly devoured all my careful accumulated savings. Being left to parent on my own has left me feeling incredibly vulnerable and lacking.

I also faced for the first time in my life the stigma and discrimination levelled at families coping with disabilities. I experienced at first hand the ugliness which stems from ignorance. For someone who has always been totally independent the process of reaching out for help from my wider community was in itself excruciatingly difficult.

For me this difficult journey has taught me many things, it has taught me the cruelty of discrimination and the wounding injustice of stereotyping. It has taught me that while I was at ease with giving I now needed to be able to receive. The journey has taught me how to reach out and ask for help for the sake of my children. It has also taught me fighting the odds and doing the impossible are sometimes what is needed. And happily it has taught me about the generosity and empathy of strangers.

I thank you for your compassion, your kindness and your belief in individual families needing help. And Bob and Tom I thank you for your friendship and your belief in me. The children and I continue our journey and the struggle to provide what is needed for the child continues but then nothing truly worthwhile comes easily or with out a fight. And I know I have a lot more fight in me than I ever dreamed possible.

I offer my sincerest and simple thanks.