Hey, everyone. My name is Ty and I am fundraising on behalf of one of my best friends, Naya. She is an amazing individual, creative, and hard-working, who, like many people, has been dealt a shitty hand over the past three years. The pandemic and the ill-effects of EDS.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a general name for a group of hereditary disorders that affect the connective tissues of a person’s body. There are over a dozen general subtypes of EDS that have a variety of different symptoms. Naya has EDS, but after specialist testing by doctors, she’s been found to either have a rare version that is unknown or a completely unrecognized subtype of EDS. What does that mean for Naya? Well, it means a lot of questions and not many answers. This includes being extremely limited in what her disability options are.

Unfortunately, Naya’s old position, which she excelled at and adored, would not make accommodations for her condition. Which led to her departure in late 2018 after her doctor informed her she could face severe physical damage if she continued working that specific job. If there’s one thing I know about Naya, it’s her ability to push through. Despite her departure, she set her sights on freelancing in editing, writing, designing, and art to earn a living.

Then the pandemic hit. Everyone was hurt from the effects of Covid-19, Naya especially.

Naya suffers from a series of mental health issues that too, for her, are hereditary. Depression, anxiety, and ADHD that she received medication and therapy for were not an issue before she left her job. Without the same insurance, specialist visits, pain management for her EDS, ADHD/Anxiety medication, and the overall depression felt by everyone from lockdown, Naya struggled.

Throughout everything, even with her struggle just to get out of bed in the morning, Naya never asked for help from anyone. She would do everything she could to pay her own way. She opened commissions when freelancing wasn’t cutting it until she couldn’t any longer. She did web design for friends looking to break into the consulting business. She moved to a smaller studio apartment to cut down on rent costs despite the infestation of mice.

Yet, it still isn’t enough to pay for rent and medication.

Naya is currently looking for a new job, one that can accommodate her disability. It’s been a rough two years, but she’s trying to find a more stable place of work. For now, dear reader, with tax season coming up, it’s not enough to cover what she needs.

As I said, she’s a hard worker that hates taking a penny she hasn’t earned. This is why I’m asking for your help on her behalf. I broke down her payments into monthly fees, including her medication for her EDS and mental illness–something she had cut from her spending so she had the money for food and rent–and it came out to 2,000 a month.

It’s a lot to ask and every little bit goes a long way. For those that would like to help but can’t donate for anything, I will be adding links to two friends who will be doing commissions for where 100% of the proceeds will go to Naya’s medication and bills for the next month as she looks for stable work. Along those same lines, Naya is looking to start a Patreon as another source of income and when that is up and running I will add that as well.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. If you cannot donate, I appreciate the time you’ve given to listen. If it’s not too much trouble please share this where you can. Naya has been there through the darkest points of my life with her never-ending support and I want to do the best I can for her now.