My wonderful Mum, Gillian Hulse means the world to not only me, my sister Katy and Dad Phil, but so many other people. She is caring, generous, creative and a great friend to loads of people. Professionally, Gillian Hulse is a self-employed glass artist who normally spends her time creating beautifully colourful pieces of jewellery, bowls, panels etc out of fused glass, from her workshop at Broadwindsor Craft Centre in Dorset. As many artists might agree, this is not the most lucrative type of work, but she earns what is needed to get by. The passion she has, and the joy she gets from her work make it so worthwhile and you can guarantee every piece of work she hand-creates has been done so with a huge amount of her own care and attention.

However, recently Gill’s work and workshop have had to take a back seat while she has undergone several weeks of medical scans, tests and consultations. Finally, several weeks ago we received the news no family ever wants to receive; she has a large tumour blocking a large part of her lung, and she needs major surgery soon to remove not only the slow-growing tumour (which apparently has likely been there for a number of years), but also half of the lung itself. As a lifelong non-smoker, you may find it strange for someone like my mum to develop such a thing. However this tumour is not a regular ‘lung cancer’- it is apparently most likely to be something called a NeuroEndocrine tumour (NETS) which can develop in various places, most commonly the bowel, stomach or lung. It wasn’t safe enough to take a biopsy due to the risk of bleeding, so we won’t know exactly what we’re dealing with until it is removed TODAY, 5th November 2018.

Now, anyone who knows my mum well won’t be surprised to hear that, despite such horrid news, she has taken it all in her stride and has such a positive and calm attitude towards the whole thing. She has been open about it, preferring just to let people know whats happening as they would wish to know. She has spoken to friends and family, and has been so delighted to hear and receive such a wonderful outpouring of love and well wishes from everyone. All the positivity, advice, help and encouragement she has received from everyone so far has been tremendous, really boosted her mood, and really shows just how many wonderful people she has in her life! She really is so grateful for all of this, so a huge thankyou to everyone for this.

Again, those who know Gill will also know that she would never be happy to ask for help with money, which is why I am doing this on her behalf. A while ago I did ask her how she would feel if i were to try and raise money to replace the losses she will experience while she is unable to do her work. As it was such an odd thing to think about, she really wasn’t sure, so I left the idea with her to think about while she found out about other financial things. However, having now looked into the financial side of simply being too unwell to work whilst being self-employed, it seems there is little help available for people like mum. It seems that one has to fit some very particular criteria in order to qualify for financial help from the system, and sadly she is unlikely to receive much help at all during this time. My wonderful Dad / her lovely husband is working his own socks off, fulfilling a huge number of stone carving orders to earn a living, even though he himself could really do with some time to digest all of this, look after himself as well as look after mum.

I have finally decided that enough is enough- my parents are wonderful people who don’t deserve this stress, and they would help anyone else out in this situation. So here we are at my solution to their money worries for rent, bills, food and so on. Gill and Phil simply need the headspace, free of money worry, to concentrate on recovering and adapting after such a stressful time.

I would like to ask as many people as possible to donate just a small amount of money- just a few quid, or whatever you can manage, to this super worthy cause. You will all be helping so much towards removing the stress and burden of loss of income whilst my mum is unwell and has to undergo and recover from major surgery.

Such a HUGE and grateful THANKYOU to anyone willing to help towards this crowdfunder for my Mum. Updates will be posted on this page as to her recovery, so watch this space!