"It's made me more determined to do things and it's made my life so much easier and so much better." With support from SSAFA, Matthew James, a former soldier of the First Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, has found a zest for life again after his MS diagnosis.
Despite loving his four years in the Army, Matt left in 1998, after a Rugby injury prevented him from continuing in his infantry role. After settling and working in Cheltenham, Matt’s life was turned upside down in 2004 when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
Matt lost his zest for life and stopped caring for himself. But when a former work friend, Ruth, heard about Matt’s situation and offered to become Matt’s carer, life began to change. Ruth recognised the dilapidated state of Matt’s home and set to work on rebuilding both Matt and his house.
Through a public appeal in The Cheltenham Post newspaper by Ruth, and help from Deborah Maguire, a SSAFA Gloucestershire branch caseworker, Matt now has a comfortable and mobility-friendly space to live including new accessible windows and a rise and recline chair funded through SSAFA. In addition, SSAFA got Matt a mobility scooter, and a self-propelled wheelchair to give him greater independence and help him get back out into the world.