Help Jess, a Trans Student, Afford Electrolysis
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Heya! I'm Jess, and thanks for checking out my fundraiser! I'm currently a student getting my BSc in linguistics, and eventually, I want to get a master's in speech language pathology. I currently work part-time as an eyecare consultant and as a part-time and volunteer voice coach for transgender people, but I also happen to live in one of the most expensive cities in Canada. Living in Victoria, B.C. is an immense challenge financially, and unfortunately that means that I am not able to pursue something that is incredibly important to me.
I am a transgender woman, and one of the things that I have struggled with most in my transition has been the removal of my facial hair. I have red hair, which means that laser won't work for me at all, leaving me with no other alternative than electrolysis. Last year, before I went back to school, I had been working for the government and I was able to afford some treatments. In total I have spent 3085.13$ on my hair removal, totaling ~30 hours of time, but the average time for electrolysis to fully remove faical hair can take anywhere from 100 to 400 hours. At this rate, assuming it only takes me 100 hours, it would cost me at least another 5000$ at a rough estimate, but I imagine that it would likely be more.
My treatment progress has been incredibly slow so far, and I simply cannot afford to keep paying out of pocket for this treatment. The government of British Columbia currently has no publicly released statements regarding plans to make this treatment covered through TransCareBC. Given my low income situation the likelyhood that this is not a procedure that will be covered anytime soon in BC, and the sheer cost of longterm treatment, I don't have much else to do other than to ask for some assistance. I'm not expecting much, and definitely not to reach the goal, but every little bit does help. I really appreciate you for taking the time to read through this fundraiser and an extra massive thank you if you decided to chip in a little to help me out!
Below are a few resources in order to help provide a bit more context to my situation as well.
References:
Organizer
Jess Gibbard
Organizer
Saanich, BC
