Hello, my name is Daisy-Rose Damazer, I am a trans woman and I am fundraising for Gender Affirmation Surgery for myself.

From my early teens and going through adolescence I knew that there was something off about my identity. I wasn't sure what it was for a long time, and it took a lot of exploration with sexuality, clothing, presentation and gender until I discovered and understood that I was a trans woman.

(This is me at a music festival in August 2019; this was one of the first times I fully presented as female in public)

Since finding this out about myself I have come to realise that much of my anxiety and insecurities come from my gender dysphoria, the distressing and upsetting feelings of being in the wrong body often triggered by seeing my body as it is at the minute and knowing that this is wrong for me.

Over the last couple of years have I started to fully present myself as a female, including using she/her pronouns, changing my name to Daisy-Rose, wearing more gender affirming clothing, starting a course of laser hair removal treatment, and taking hormones to start altering my physicality. These changes have all had a massive positive impact on my mental health and have allowed me to begin feeling a bit more confident and comfortable in myself and start to really feel more at home in myself as a woman.

I knew from the beginning of my journey as a trans woman that gender affirmative surgery was something I wanted to aim for as well. This procedure would give me female genitalia and help me incredibly with the dysphoria and be such a significant change for me that would go towards completing my transition and allow me to live fully as the woman I want to be. Although this is something that the NHS do provide for free, the road to getting this kind of help is so long that it just isn't an option for me.

At the moment I have been waiting nearly 18 months just to get on a waiting list for a first appointment with an NHS gender specialist, which could be over another 3 1/2 years wait. From there, the time to being able to access surgery for free could be over another 3/4 years, meaning my wait time could be almost 10 years until I receive gender affirmation surgery on the NHS.

In comparison, with private healthcare I could be able to have the gender affirmation surgery in as little as 1 1/2 years. The only real obstacle with this route is the cost, which for the surgery alone would be around £27,000.

My laser hair removal treatment is costing £2140, of which I have already paid £1070 and will pay the rest myself. I have been paying for my own hormone therapy since September 2020 which costs around £140 every 3 months. Going ahead, when I am officially referred to a private clinic, which I am in the process of achieving, the hormone costs will be about £50 per month, with the costs of consultations and appointments being another £650/£750.

The total cost of my healthcare before surgery then would amount to an estimate of £4200-£4600, which I am aiming to pay for completely myself.

For my surgery I am aiming to raise £7000 to £10,000 myself, but with the remaining £20,000 that is wear I would be so extremely grateful for any donations and support that you can give me towards this cost. Honestly, anything that you can donate at all would be so helpful and go towards me achieving my goal. Even if you cannot donate, if you can share this fundraiser with anyone and everyone you know I would really appreciate it.

(This is a recent picture of me and my close friends Grace and Sylvie enjoying being crazy art students together)

Thank you so much for reading and all the support you are giving me, wishing you all the best,

Daisy-Rose <3