Paul Blakemore is taking on a 12-hour gaming stream to raise money for us!
He explains why: “Hello. And this is my story.. or should I say all sufferers story…
The disease is horrible. For some its more or less hidden (my right under arm and surrounded area) people still ask.. “what’s that by your arm” or go “ewww its disgusting” and quite rightly so.
But it defines me. It defines us. For those lucky to survive.. we change. We see things differently. For me it just made me more sarcastic but also weary of just how messed up things can be.
I spent 1 month in New Cross in Wolverhampton. I had surgery 15 times 8 of them in a row. It was mental, but it was awesome watching them cut my arm open and go up to and under my shoulder blade and down to my lymph nodes which was take out. (I nearly died when the bacterial infection headed inwards to my chest.. the doctors who did the surgery said it was too close to say.. he said I should have died, even if I waited a day later… a simple abscess almost cost me my life. The bacteria can get in from many forms of cuts or scratches. The abscess for me was the way in for the bacteria) the constant time in the walk in for dressing and pack changes, then a week in Birmingham hospital when they realised my skin graft wouldn’t be so simple.. the infection decided it wanted to come back! A week there on their high dependence ward… I remember sitting in the shower room with the nurses outside asking me.. “are you ok Paul” and I was like yes of course.. I broke down crying thinking is the hell ever going to end. I went for one day there ended up being a week. It broke me.
My (now) wife (then GF) put up with all my ****. My pain, looking after our very young boy 4-6-month-old child by then. I owe a lot to her.
Now here I am.. Necrotizing fasciitis can kiss my backside. I’m in charge. And want to show people all I can about this.
This 12-hour stream is just for that.
The foundation in raising for is called The Lee Spark NF Foundation. A lad died in 2000 of NF. So, his family and friends made this foundation to help people who have had NF as a way of coping. I admit I never used this foundation as I felt like I understood what happened and handled it.
On the 25th I will be doing a steam from 7-7 8-8 or 9-9 so I can still do normal things.
The games I will cover are Call of Duty BO4, Apex Legends and Fortnite. And maybe something else too. I will send a schedule out when I can.”
On behalf of us here at The Lee Spark NF Foundation, we’d like to say a huge thank you to Paul, and to all our amazing fundraisers! We couldn’t do this without you.
If you’d like to sponsor Paul, you can do so here.