Concert
To get tickets to Second Chances premiering at 7pm on April 10th (available for 48 hours) please donated £5 or more and leave your email in the message. If you forget to leave the email please contact me on social media or email me at [email protected] so that I know where to send the link.
Prize Draw (drawn on 17th April)
One entry for every £5 donated, for example donating £20 will give you four entries. If you want to be included in this draw, make sure your donation is not anonymous so that I can contact you if you win.
First prize - 10% of the funds raised (eg. if I raise £500 this prize will be £50, if I raise £5000 it will be £500).
Second prize - £25 theatre voucher
Other prizes - Claire's voucher, assorted theatre memorabilia, a box of chocolate brownies and more.
MY STORY
Since the age of 13, I have experienced hip problems that have often left me in excruciating pain and unable to walk without crutches. Over the last eight years I have had more than ten surgeries in hopes of fixing it but none of them have given me more than a few months of pain free time. My life has literally been put on hold since the age of 13.
First surgery age 13
As long as I can remember, my dream has been to be a performer or dancer. I was dancing many hours a week from age five up, and I performed in many shows including Billy Elliot in the West End. So, when at 13 all of a sudden I couldn’t walk it was really hard to come to terms with. I had my dreams crushed overnight, and every time I had surgery I prayed it would fix me and I could go back to my dreams but then every single time I ended up back on crutches and having to give up my dreams again. Eventually I gave up completely and tried to find something else to do with my life, a new ‘dream’, but I just couldn’t find anything else I wanted to do.
Most recent surgery age 20
Through my teenage years and now into my early twenties I spent a lot of my time in constant pain, on crutches and with no way forward to fix me. I ended up being lost – trapped in this life between childhood and adulthood but unable to really move on with my life because I didn’t know whether I would ever be fixed and I had no independence and relied heavily on my mum for most things. Because of this lack of independence, the constant pain and having my dreams crushed I ended up with some pretty bad mental health issues. I struggled to see the positives and often found it hard to motivate myself to do anything as the one thing I had really wanted had been taken away from me.
Trying to still do things I enjoy, like seeing shows, whilst being stuck in pain in a wheelchair or on crutches
Finally, I began to work through some of my mental health problems with lots of support around me and decided that I was going to try and make it as a musical theatre performer even with my disability. I started a YouTube channel to document my journey as a disabled performer (https://www.youtube.com/c/SophiaMoore/videos) and was lucky enough to gain a place to start in September 2021 on a three-year musical theatre degree course – which had been my dream for many years! I finally thought I was on the right track… and then I learnt I needed a hip replacement.
Learning to dance on crutches
Covid-19 has meant that waiting lists are incredibly long, there’s no indication of when they will be able to do this surgery and it’s likely to be a wait of at least a year. Unfortunately, this may stop me from following my dream AGAIN as would be in the middle of the course I am doing and I can't afford to have the time off to have and recover from this big surgery.
Having lots of tests to confirm I need a hip replacement including X-Rays and MRIs
The only way for me to be able to follow this new path is for me to have the hip replacement before I go. That means having a private operation, which me and my family are struggling to find a way to afford. It has been a real struggle both physically and mentally for me over the last eight years and for the first time I feel like I’m on a positive path for both of them. Now Covid-19 may throw a spanner in the works and I am determined not to let that happen. So I am raising money to help get this life changing operation in time to continue on the path that I have worked so hard to be on.
Me now, still on crutches, age 21