Fundraising Transition
Being desperate to fund my transition with 5 months left to go before I had to pay in full for my top surgery, coming up short of the money I needed while being a full-time university student doing as much over time as possible, I found myself looking into all possible options of how to get this money as quickly as possible.
When I decided to go private, I started to save my money, day to day using as little as possible to put into my top surgery fund. With time, I hit the amount that the organisation I was with said would be the maximum amount they would charge, even going slightly over just to be careful. After my face-to-face appointment/assessment, they gave me a date for my operation (!!), of which I had seven days to sign the documents otherwise it would go to someone else. Little did I know that I hadn’t read the fine print when I was saving the money, and it said the maximum price didn’t include the hospital fees! I validly had a moment after realising how much money I still needed, but being desperate to get rid of my chest, I decided to do it and sent off the forms and deposit.
As time got went on and it was clear I was going to struggle to reach that amount by myself, I went onto Instagram to doom scroll my feelings and thoughts away. Clicking my way through Instagram stories, I came across someone promoting a ‘Go Fund Me’ page of a person raising money for their top surgery. That’s when it hit, even if I make nothing, there’s no harm in trying! I set up my page explaining who I am, my background and my situation, with a picture of me and the trans flag that my friend took of me from pride that year. While crossing my fingers, I shared the link on all of my social media accounts, spreading it far and wide so that as many people saw it as possible. My friends started to share it, their friends shared it and suddenly I was having messages and donations my friends to people I hadn’t spoken to in years to even people I didn’t know! I can’t explain how incredibly lucky I was/am to have had all these amazing people come to help and support me, whether this was through money, kind messages or sharing the link. I am and will always be so very grateful and honoured to have had that kindness given to me which enabled me to fundraise enough money for my surgery.
Some things to bear in mind:
- When you set the ‘Go Fund Me’ page up and share it, you may have a spur of people messaging and donating. This is incredible and the best feeling, however that means if you get a lull in donations, please try to remember that that doesn’t mean that’s it, all things have highs and lows. Keep going, sharing and reminding everyone and hopefully you will have a high again!
- The more personal you make it and the more detail you put into it, even though it’s hard, the more likely people are to relate to your cause and want to donate
- ‘Go Fund Me’ has an way that you can make your page private and be anonymous, this means that if you aren’t out or it isn’t safe for you to publicly set up a ‘Go Fund Me’ page, this could be an option.
- It’s okay to ask for help even if it’s hard to admit it
Obviously, we deserve more from the UK healthcare system, the Gender Identify Clinic and the waitlists we are put on to be placed to one side, ticked off in their minds while we wait in hope for any form of contact that never comes. That’s why as a community we have to come together to support each other so that we all keep going, as things will and must get better. Fundraising showed me that even if you think all hope is gone, not everyone believes that about you. You deserve support and to see the image of yourself that you make in your head to ease the struggle, turn into a reality.
Truly wishing you the best.
By Jay Alexander
