Rachel Hinks: Please help me
(Image from: Mirror, http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/woman-forced-give-up-home-9653483)
[Editor's note: [My comment: We met Rachel in Chichester a couple of weeks ago, to see for ourselves how bad her situation is, and whether we could do anything to help.
As you can see from her fundraising page, she has suffered from a number of serious and incapacitating health conditions for many years, and now, on top of all of those, she also suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
Her small rented home is completely unsuitable for somebody with EHS, as you can see from the video, and - as a result - she can't sleep there, but instead needs to sleep wherever she can; tents, yurts, and now in a friend's summer house at the end of the garden.
Despite the daily challenges of living with all of her long-term health issues, Rachel is focusing on what she can do to improve her own situation, and she talked about how she would then like to be able to help others, once she is past this personal crisis.
She has done volunteering work in the past, although her frailty now makes this next to impossible.
Her plan is to raise enough money through donations to buy a camper van, so that she can drive to a warmer and drier climate, which would present much less of a challenge to someone with her health issues.
She is not able to work, and, as with most EHS people in the UK, she is receiving no meaningful support from the authorities.
Please take a moment to watch the video on her fundraising page, which a friend of Rachel's has just produced. If you are able to make a donation to help Rachel find a way out of this situation, I know that she would be so grateful.
Her fundraising page also includes a couple of images showing how her heart rhythm is affected by exposure to Wi-Fi and mobile phone radiation.
There are also links below to some of the media coverage of Rachel's case.
The text below is what Rachel has sent to me recently, plus there's a brief update from Mary Coales, who lives in the same area as Rachel, and who is also suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity]
Rachel Hinks:
Just to confirm that yes, I am now in a desperate situation
I am sleeping in tent on some friends land. I have been here 6 weeks and they have said I must leave by the 10th Sept.
I have gone through every official channel - trying to swop my home on Homeswapper for 1 year - appeal to council to rehouse me - urgent letter from GP, diagnosis of EHS from another doctor saying it's severe - still they decline to give me any priority; written to my previous MP who wrote to environmental housing, who said they can't house people with EHS.
if I can raise enough funds for a van, I wonder if I can survive a ferry crossing with protective clothing and then travel down more south, where its more dry and warm, and there are places without so much EMF as in the UK.
I have emailed every community I can find - and am at the end of my tether in keeping going
I have been living in tents and such like now for 4 months.
I don't have family support, I don't own property or possessions, nor have money - I developed lupus at age 16, so have spent 30 years sick with multiple autoimmune diseases, and have mainly have done bits of voluntary work; all volunteer schemes want people to work 5 hrs a day - but I am just not well enough to do anything like that long - and all so far have Wi-Fi.
I don't see how i can get on a plane and survive right now to get any further afield - my heart is being badly affected by this now.
I don't have family support, I don't own property or possessions, nor have money - I developed lupus at age 16, so have spent 30 years sick with multiple autoimmune diseases, and have mainly have done bits of voluntary work; all volunteer schemes want people to work 5 hrs a day - but I am just not well enough to do anything like that long - and all so far have Wi-Fi.
I don't see how i can get on a plane and survive right now to get any further afield - my heart is being badly affected by this now.
I have been severely affected for 1 3/4 years now - for most of the first year, I lived in a white netted canopy, but now the levels are too high to block. I have 3 mobile phone masts around me - one is only 100 meters away, and I am in a one bed place, with thin walls, and with neighbours who have Wi-Fi, smart televisions, mobiles and so on. I have shielded with paint the one wall I can in the alleyway, but I am not permitted to paint any other walls outside.
I really don't know how I'm going to make it right now.
Excuse me if this sounds scrambled, re. responding to a lot of what you say, and being affected on a computer.
I have done everything i can right now these past 4 months - I have spent nights in my Renault Clio car in country lanes, but it's too small for seats to fold down to sleep. It's 19 yrs old, so not worth anything to sell. I have pitched tents in bits of unknown woods.
Now the weather is turning, I don't have a way to keep doing this without help.
If I could raise enough funds for a van that would at least give me shelter, safety and more warmth for a time.
Love and thanks for whatever you can do
Rachel x
Mary Coales:
"She is currently staying in a friend’s small campervan in a field belonging to other people she knows, but she cannot even sleep in the van because of the radio/aerial which cannot be disconnected, and the friend is coming back from abroad, so Rachel will be unable to stay. And autumn is coming!"
Rachel Hinks:
I now have to leave here a week on Sunday for definite - and still have nowhere to go.
I spent the other night in the car when I couldn't stay in the yurt - have a tent again now for a week.
If I could raise more funds swiftly then at least I'd have some options with a van for a bit...so if you can spread the word to anyone you know I'd appreciate it. It also, as a by-product, helps people become aware of EHS, and that it can become serious.
It's all getting very dire now the weather is about to turn.
Thanks again for all your help
Love Rachel
link for fundraiser didn't work for me
ReplyDeleteI tried it just now, and it worked for me. Perhaps the site was down for maintenance?
DeleteHi Rachel. I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through! Noone should suffer like this :(
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if I could help you to get better? I'm a naturopath, chemist and ex suffer of EMS.I read that you had a lupus when you were 16. Autoimmune conditions could be connected to EMS.
if you interested, this is my email
dobrusiak at yahoo co uk
Hi Rachel
ReplyDeleteThe people on this EHS site know what you are going through possibly better than anyone else...the worst is that nobody believes you...still your 'higher self' exists and understands you...you can (I have found) get in touch with that self through devotion,gratitude (for any small thing) and prayer...all I can think is that this is a life where you must advance past the usual materialism that most people experience...to a world of gratitude for each breath and each situation you find where there is no wifi.When we pray sincerley we will be heard ...there is a God...may he bless and hear you!