Hi, my name is Lee. I’m a trans person living in Dublin, and this October I’m flying to the Netherlands with my bike, all my camping gear and a goal to cycle 2,470 kilometres crossing through four different countries in Europe to help fund my top surgery. But I want this journey to represent more than my own fundraiser - my hope is to raise awareness around the staggering number of people on our waiting lists and also to emphasise the thousands of kilometres and countries trans people in Ireland have to travel to just to access care.

I'm setting a defined fundraising target based on the cost of accessing my top surgery privately, including the associated medical, travel and accommodation costs. If I manage to reach my target, any money donated beyond that target will go to TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland). TENI do vital work supporting and advocating for the trans community in Ireland and have been more than supportive with this fundraiser. I would be incredibly grateful for any funds raised beyond my target to go towards supporting their work. It would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to have a read, donate, share, follow the journey or simply take the time to understand why I’m doing this. It all helps.

Why 2,470 kilometres?

My need to fund my own gender-affirming surgery doesn't exist in isolation. For trans people in Ireland, accessing gender-affirming healthcare means facing extremely limited services and extraordinarily long waiting times. For most of us, accessing the care we need means finding a way to fund it privately ourselves. When I began planning this fundraiser late last year, 2,470 was the last officially reported figure published on the number of people waiting to access care through Ireland's National Gender Service. So I decided that if I was going to cycle across Europe to fund my own care, I wanted the distance to mean something. Start a conversation. Make the numbers mean something. 2,470 people. 2,470 kilometres.

Unfortunately this number isn't frozen at 2,470 and has continued to grow since last December. But that figure became the distance I committed myself to riding and a representation of a healthcare system that has left thousands of people waiting. I’ll be cycling from the Netherlands through Belgium and France, continuing south into Spain, before returning to Cork and back up to Dublin to complete the final part of the journey. I’ll be carrying all of my equipment with me on the bike and camping along the route.

Why I'm doing this

Top surgery is something that means an enormous amount to me personally and would be genuinely life-changing. I want the freedom to feel comfortable in my body and move through everyday life without the constant gender dysphoria that a lack of access to healthcare has caused. But accessing that care means travelling abroad and paying privately for my surgery. So I'm doing something big to try to make it happen. There will be long days, bad weather, tired legs, campsites, punctures, loneliness and probably a lot of moments when I wonder why on earth I decided cycling across Europe solo was a good idea.

But that's also the whole point.

Accessing healthcare shouldn't require extraordinary measures. While this fundraiser will hopefully help me access my own surgery, I want the journey to create more conversations and raise awareness about why so many trans people in Ireland find themselves having to navigate these barriers in the first place.

Finally, to all the wonderful beautiful people in my life — there have been many moments when you could have told me I was a bit crazy for doing this, but instead, each and every one of you have offered me nothing but unconditional support, belief in me, and belief in this goal I’ve set for myself. I’m finally on the home stretch of making this happen. On the difficult days, thinking of you will keep the wheels turning - grá mór x

https://teni.ie/