Bill* and Ellen** were lounging by the pool when a gunman opened fire on innocent tourists in Tunisia in June 2015.
As the couple fled for their lives, Bill was shot in his left calf and a bullet went right through Ellen’s right thigh, taking over three inches of thigh bone with it.
After receiving emergency treatment and spending more than two weeks in hospital, the couple contacted Victim Support, who offered emotional and practical support through regular home visits and telephone contact.
After such a horrific ordeal as this, you are not capable of coping with everything — there is just too much pressure.
Being able to chat through everything that needed to be done with my Victim Support caseworker really helped in deciding what my priorities were.
Bill, now a full time carer for his wife, asked Victim Support for help claiming benefits. We put him in touch with a local agency that helped them fill in documents for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
I don’t struggle with paperwork normally but I was under a lot of pressure, stress and was caring for Ellen. Filling out a 40 page booklet from the DWP was just too much at that time.After this had all happened, I just didn’t know where to begin and you feel like you’re left to struggle alone. Victim Support has been really useful for pointing me in the right direction so we could get the help we needed with certain things and by chatting things over, like how to claim Criminal Injuries Compensation etc.
What has also been really useful is having my Victim Support caseworker checking in on us and finding out if we need any further support. There is someone to fall back on and I also know that if needed I can contact my caseworker at any time if an issue occurs.
* / ** Names changed to maintain anonymity