"Please help me keep my independence" - Woman who is growing a second skeleton launches crowdfunder to install lift in home

A local woman who suffers from a very rare medical condition which turns her muscles to bone is crowdfunding for a lift to be installed in her house after she can no longer use the stairs.

Rachel Winnard, 35, who has the condition Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, is hoping to raise £20,000 for a lift in her home, which is unsuitable for a stair lift.

FOP is a very rare condition in which muscle tissue and connective tissue, such as tendons and ligaments, are gradually replaced by bone, forming a second skeleton and constraining movement. There are only 800 known cases worldwide.

Rachel was born with the condition but was not diagnosed until she was 12 years old.

Despite experiencing restricting mobility, losing a lot of movement in her left hip and left arm, she says she has always found a way around things, until now.

Currently experiencing a flare-up in her right leg, Rachel is unable to manage stairs without her husband, Paul, physically pulling her up them.

Rachel said: “I can’t have a stair lift as our stairs are too narrow and I lean back when I sit down because of my illness. I cry everyday with Paul having to pull me upstairs as it's so painful and exhausting.”

Moving to a new house isn’t an option either as the kitchen and the bathroom have already been adapted to suit Rachel’s needs.

She continued: “We own our house and have just had the kitchen adapted and a wet room and self-cleaning toilet installed.

“I have everything I need here. If we move, we'd have to have a full house adaptation again and it could take years. I am desperate: I am either stuck upstairs or downstairs.

“I have been looking at getting a lift installed from the front room to my bedroom but the problem with that is that it's going to cost at about £20,000, which we just don’t have.”

Rachel added: “I am slowly losing my independence; I don’t want to lose my little home. We have worked so hard for it and we both love it.

“If anyone could donate even a small amount, it would be amazing and it would mean the world to us.”

To donate, please visit:

• www.gofundme.com/f/lift-access-from-downstairs-to-my-bedroom