A young woman who is battling a chronic illness has issued a heartfelt thanks to the Ellesmere Port community for ‘making her path brighter’.
Hannah Leffler was diagnosed the rare and debilitating stomach condition gastroparesis, which causes excessive vomiting and nausea, two years ago.
Often in agony, she has lost a considerable amount of weight and is unable to work.
Hannah has been desperately trying to raise the thousands of pounds required to fund life-changing surgery as well as the costs of after-care, and thanks to a fundraiser held in her hometown of Little Sutton on Sunday (April 23) she is nearing her target.
The 25-year-old was only released from hospital late last week, but she was determined not to miss the fun day event at The Bull’s Head, which was also attended by Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders.
Now Hannah has expressed how grateful she is to everybody who has donated to her crowdfunding page or shown her support since she went public with her health issues last month.
She said: “Sunday was incredible – I can’t believe how many people turned up and I’m so glad I made it.
“We had so much going on and everyone helped boost my total by £1,243 so now I am up to around £7,500.
“I would just like to say thank you all so much.
“From the bottom of my heart, it all means the world to me.
“The fundraising started about two months ago when my future was unclear and now with everyone’s support and donations I have a much brighter path being made for me.
“I can actually see me getting my life back and I owe it all to each and every individual who has shared my story or donated.”
Hannah currently relies on a feeding tube for all her nutrition but a gastric pacemaker would enable Hannah to digest food and live a normal life again.
Insurance company AXA has kindly agreed to fund the surgery for free, so the next step is for Hannah to arrange a date for the gastric pacemaker to be fitted.
However, she is still asking for donations to help cover after-care costs.
If you would like to support her campaign, click here.
