Help a Mother of Three Rebuild Her Family's Future

My husband survived a devastating illness. But the life we knew did not come back with him.

I am a working mother of three children, and I never imagined I would find myself asking strangers for help.

For years, my husband and I worked hard to build a stable life for our family. We were raising our children, managing our responsibilities and making plans for their future.

My husband was a strong, hardworking, self-employed craftsman. His livelihood depended on his physical strength. He worked on demanding projects, including installing large windows and doors.

At home, he was an active and involved father. Taking our children to school, picking them up and sharing the responsibilities of family life were all part of our everyday routine.

I was working too, while investing in my education through a Master's programme. I hoped that advancing professionally would allow me to contribute more to our family's future.

We were not wealthy. But we were building a life through our own efforts.

Then, without warning, everything changed.

We believed he would recover

At just 44 years old, my husband developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a serious neurological condition that can cause profound muscle weakness and paralysis.

His illness led to a long and difficult period of hospitalisation and rehabilitation.

We prayed for him to recover completely.

Because he was young, the doctors initially gave us hope that he would regain his strength. We held on to that hope throughout the difficult months that followed.

We imagined the day he would finally come home and our lives could begin to return to normal.

But recovery did not unfold as we had hoped.

The hardest part of our journey was not the hospital. It was discovering that coming home did not mean getting our old life back.

The reality of life after the hospital

Today, my husband continues to live with severe, lasting physical limitations.

He needs assistance with many everyday activities.

His hands can suddenly lose their strength, causing him to drop objects without warning.

At home, we began using plastic dishes because ordinary plates and glasses could slip from his hands and break.

His knees can also give way unexpectedly. He sometimes falls twice in a single week, and every fall brings the fear that he could be seriously injured.

Even something as simple as holding one of our children now carries a worry we never had before.

These are the small, everyday realities that have changed our family life.

We have learned that living with the consequences of a serious illness is not one difficult moment. It is adapting to a different reality, every single day.

And yet, my husband continues to do everything he can.

He still takes our children to school and picks them up when he is able, moving at his own pace.

He continues to work as well, although his physical limitations have forced him to make enormous changes.

The large, physically demanding projects that once provided most of his income are no longer manageable.

He has had to reduce the amount of work he accepts by approximately 70%, limiting himself to smaller, lighter jobs.

He has not lost his willingness to work. He has lost much of the physical ability on which his livelihood depended.

For someone who earns a living through skilled manual work, that loss has changed everything.

When the financial consequences became impossible to ignore

The illness did not only change my husband's health.

It changed the financial foundations of our family.

Our household income has fallen by approximately 80%.

But our responsibilities have not fallen with it.

We still have three children to raise, a home to maintain, food to put on the table and the ordinary expenses of family life.

I continue to work, while helping my husband and doing my best to keep our family stable.

But there is only so much one income can cover when a family has lost most of the financial security it once relied upon.

The hardest part is knowing that this is not simply a temporary interruption.

We cannot plan our future around the assumption that my husband will soon be able to return to the same physically demanding work he did before.

We have to build a different way forward.

Why finishing my education matters more than ever

Before my husband's illness, I had already begun a Master's programme to improve my professional opportunities.

It was a significant investment in our future, made when our financial circumstances were very different.

The programme costs €20,000 over one year, divided into five instalments of €4,000.

At the time, continuing my education was a way to grow professionally and create better opportunities for our family.

Today, it has become something much more important.

It is one of the most concrete opportunities I have to improve my earning potential and become a stronger financial support for my husband and our children.

I want my husband to be able to respect the limits of his health without feeling that he must take on physically demanding work simply because our family needs the income.

I want our children to grow up with stability, despite everything we have experienced.

And I want to continue working toward a future in which our family can rely more securely on my professional income.

But the financial consequences of my husband's illness have made it increasingly difficult to pay for my education while meeting our family's essential needs.

The very opportunity that could help us become more financially secure is now at risk.

I know that completing a Master's degree does not guarantee a promotion or a higher salary.

But it can strengthen my qualifications, broaden my career opportunities and give me a better chance of improving our circumstances through my own work.

I am not asking anyone to support my family indefinitely. I am asking for help to keep building the means to support them myself.

What we are raising funds for

Our fundraising goal is €18,000. Every euro has a purpose.

We want to be transparent about how your generosity will help our family.

The funds will be divided between two essential needs: completing the Master's programme I had already begun before my husband's illness and helping our family meet basic living expenses during this difficult period.

1. Remaining Master's tuition — €12,000

My Master's programme costs €20,000 over one year, divided into five instalments of €4,000.

I have already paid the first two instalments (€8,000) through our own resources.

Three instalments remain, totalling €12,000.

This portion of the fundraiser will go toward those remaining tuition payments, allowing me to continue working toward better professional opportunities and greater financial security for my family.

2. Essential family living expenses — €6,000

The remaining €6,000 is intended to help cover essential family expenses over the next three months.

These include:

• Housing and utilities.

• Groceries and basic household necessities.

• Our three children's essential needs.

• Necessary transportation and other everyday expenses.

This support would help relieve the immediate financial pressure on our family while I continue working and completing my studies.

How we will use and account for donations

I will continue contributing my own income toward our family's needs.

Donations will be used for the two purposes described above. Tuition payments will follow the programme's payment schedule, while the family-support portion will be used for essential expenses as they arise.

If we raise less than our goal, I will explain in our campaign updates how the donations received are allocated between the most urgent needs.

I will also share updates on our progress and the use of funds, while protecting my husband's medical privacy and our children's personal information.

This is not simply about getting through the next few months. It is about giving our family the chance to build lasting financial stability.

And thank you, from our family to yours, for any support you can offer.