ALL DONATIONS DOUBLED UP TO THE FIRST $2,200 THANKS TO GENEROUS MATCH DONORS!

$1 = $2

$5 = $10

$100 = $200

$500 = $1,000!

This fundraiser is being organized by her partner and a friend, with Sareeta’s consent, on her behalf. All funds will go directly toward her living and medical expenses. Sareeta is a queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill and disabled person living in Vancouver. She has been off work for over a year because of multiple serious chronic illnesses and has now been without income for 10 weeks after her long-term disability claim was denied twice, despite strong medical support.

--

This fundraiser is being organized by her partner and a friend on Sareeta’s behalf.

Sareeta is a queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill disabled person living in Vancouver. She has been off work for over a year due to serious chronic illness, and she has now been without income for 10 weeks after her long-term disability claim was denied twice.

This is not a story about financial irresponsibility or lack of planning. Sareeta did what people are told to do. She worked. She saved. She built an emergency fund. While sick, she pursued medical care, spent her minimal energy gathering documentation, filed the paperwork, and followed the process. Even with strong support from her doctors, the system that was supposed to protect her has failed her.

What began after she had COVID gradually became impossible to ignore. Her health declined to the point that friends and coworkers noticed and expressed concern. Since then, she has been navigating multiple serious diagnoses, including a gut infection, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), alongside endometriosis and pre-menstrual dysphoric syndrome (PMDD).

These conditions affect nearly every part of her daily life. ME/CFS can make basic activities like showering, cooking, concentrating, or even being upright genuinely impossible. MCAS means her body can overreact to light, sound, food, scents, and other everyday exposures. Endometriosis and PMDD intensify both ME and MCAS, as well as pain, inflammation, fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, and functional impairment. Together, these conditions are exhausting, unpredictable, and deeply limiting.

These are not conditions that improve by pushing through. They require extensive rest, ongoing medical care, and time.

Over the last year, Sareeta has had to spend what little energy she had not on healing, but on surviving bureaucracy: emails, appointments, paperwork, follow-ups, and repeated demands to prove the severity of what she is living with. Short-term disability did not create the conditions for real recovery. Instead, she was left managing her own case while extremely ill.

When the time came to transition to long-term disability, she hoped there would finally be space to rest and stabilize. Instead, her claim was denied. She appealed and submitted additional medical evidence. Then came eight weeks of silence, delays, and more pressure while she remained without income. She was denied again in early April.

The insurance company handling her long-term disability claim has denied her benefits twice… despite extensive medical documentation.

What is happening to Sareeta is personal, but it is not unusual. Disabled people are too often forced to fight for support while already exhausted.

She is now in the process of exploring legal options. But legal processes take time — likely 6-12 months if not longer. In the meantime, she still needs to pay rent, buy groceries, access treatment, care for herself, and remain housed.

As this fundraiser launches, Sareeta has about one month of rent left.

Sareeta’s monthly expenses are approximately $4,600. That includes rent, utilities, food, medications and supplements, therapy and health care, transit, insurance, care for her cat, debt payments, and other basic living costs. She has already burned through the emergency savings she spent years building in just months while on short term disability.

The goal of $14,000 will cover roughly three months of essential expenses plus a small buffer, giving her a chance to stabilize, continue accessing care, and pursue legal options without the immediate threat of losing housing, medical care, or further damaging her health. If the fundraiser exceeds that amount, additional funds will go toward months four through six of living expenses.

Sareeta has spent years supporting others — as a teacher, nonprofit program manager, customer service manager, and trauma-informed financial coach. She believes deeply in mutual aid, community care, and people showing up for one another. She's contributed to fundraisers like this one. She's the person her community calls. Now she is in the position of needing that care herself.

If you’re able to contribute, thank you. If you can’t donate right now, sharing this fundraiser would also make a real difference.

This is a moment where community support through mutual aid can help carry someone through a system that has left her behind. Disabled people shouldn't have to fight this hard just to survive.

And in her words, she wants to fight not just for herself but for every disabled person that the system keeps failing.

She says:

"I'm tired, honestly. I'm done being polite about it. I have had enough. My Capricorn sun has taken over — my soft Pisces moon's taken a nap and my fiery Leo rising is here. It's happening. I’m ready to fight back, but I need support. So I'm doing what capitalism wants me to keep being afraid to do: asking for help.

If you can help, I'm letting myself be helped. Help me fight for myself, and the rights of the thousands of other people struggling with their health after having COVID."

Thank you for showing up for Sareeta.