Tuesday 17 May 2011

Real Life: Samantha Wilkes

LIFE has dealt Samantha Wilkes some tough cards over the past few years.
Her business collapsed in the recession, her partner walked away when she was four months pregnant, she nearly died from a burst appendix and now she faces having her home repossessed.
But the 39-year-old mum-of-one, from Earls Road, Trentham, is determined not to go down without a fight.
She has launched an internet campaign to try to raise the £40,000 she needs by the end of July in order to keep a roof over her baby son's head.
Cradling tiny Shiron in her arms, she explains that she hates having to ask people for help.
"I've tried every other option I can think of. I've applied for loans. I've asked people I knew through the business and friends.
"Before this I would never have dreamt of asking anyone for anything."
But she has decided to put pride to one side, to try to secure a future for the child she clearly adores.
"I've wanted him all my life," she says. "I idolise him, he's my world.
"I'd do anything for him and if asking for money is going to save his future then that is what I'm going to do. I've done all this for him, as I don't want him to grow up the way I did."
Six years ago everything was going well in Samantha's world.
She had set up a successful furniture business and bought a home in Trentham that she hoped to one day fill with children.
But then the recession hit and work started to dry up.
The business, Charnwood Furniture Ltd, was moved to smaller premises in Madeley, but eventually Samantha had no option but to cease trading.
She says she lost all her personal money with the business, but still had the millstone around her neck of a business loan secured against the house.
Samantha had suspected she was infertile, but in August last year she became pregnant.
"I had only met Shiron's father a few months before and he decided to leave us when I was 16-and-a-half weeks pregnant," she says.
She was rushed to hospital the day he left and was operated on for a life-threatening burst appendix.
"When I woke up I knew that I'd survived, but it was the next day before I knew whether the baby had too.
"They turned the monitor away from me when they started the scan, then turned it for me to see when they had found him.
"I was in hospital for eight days, then when I got home I fell down the stairs.
"A lot has happened to us, but Shiron and me have come through everything."
In March, after another baby scan, a heavily-pregnant Samantha came home to a letter from the bank saying she was going to be evicted four days later. Her neighbours, Catherine and Andrew Cowell, stepped in to help.
They asked the congregation at Church Without Walls, in Gitana Street, Hanley, to do what they could.
By the end of the four days they had gathered together £2,000 to buy Samantha some time, including an anonymous £500 donation which was posted through her front door.
Andrew Cowell says: "We've been neighbours with Samantha for a long while and she's been through a lot of tough stuff.
"No one was helping her and the bank was putting more and more pressure on her.
"She's as much a victim of the recession as anyone"
"They're the nicest people," says Samantha. "They say they've done it because they don't want me to leave.
"I was just blown away by people's generosity. I was crying my eyes out.
"When I took the money to the bank the manager ended up giving me a cuddle."
The £2,000 bought her enough time to give birth to her baby and bring him home. Now the real battle begins.
Catherine and Andrew came up with the idea of a sponsor a brick campaign and Samantha has set up a website where people can make donations.
So far she has raised £235, but hopes that the figure will increase when more people hear about her plight.
She says: "I've wanted a baby all my life, but with the right man. I wanted the fairytale. I wanted the marriage, the kids, the home.
"It never happened and I never found the right partner. I got older and older and I thought it would never happen.
"I had a few failed relationships and had given up on the chance to be a mum, then Shiron came along.
"I've worked all my life to end up with a nice house and a future for the baby I always wanted.
"I've finally got a baby, but now we're going to be homeless and I don't know what I'm going to do.
"If this does work I want to set up a charity to help people like me, so that I can give something back."
Sam's dad, Douglas Wilkes, said his daughter had been on the receiving end of some bad luck with her business and the recession.
The 64-year-old, of Station Road in Keele, said: "Sam has just had bad luck with the business and the recession killed it with the pubs and clubs closing.
"Something like 40 pubs and 20 clubs are closing down each day.
"It's such a shame and I don't think there's any mileage in the bank throwing Sam out of her home.
"At the moment the house is a bomb site because she was doing it up but she had to stop work on it when she was told she might have to leave."
Samantha's twin sister, Alison Goddard, who she was forced to make redundant as a sales manager when the business was starting to fail, said her sister often rang her during the night because she was unable to sleep because of the stress of the situation.
The 39-year-old, of Booth Street in Audley, said: "Sam is absolutely devastated by this to the point that it's affected her health because she has heart problems.
"She doesn't sleep at night and she rings me up during the night regularly. She gets into a right state.
"She doesn't want to have worked for 20 years for absolutely nothing. It's devastating for her.
"I think the bank could've been a bit more lenient because the amount of time they've given her to get the money is absurd."
Another of Samantha's supporters is Caroline Ramcharan. She met Samantha at the Church Without Walls three years ago.
The 42-year-old, from Church Lawton, said: "Sam's had a really rough time and is in a terrible situation.
"She's really nice and she's been really unlucky. She'll be homeless with a baby if we can't raise the money so any help will be gratefully received."
Contact Church Without Walls on 01782 657566 or visit www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk and click on this story.
Source http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/
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