Hello dear community,

My name is Stronghold System, my pronouns are they/them, and I'm 38 years old. I am the founder of The Plural Association, a grassroots nonprofit.

I've been doing this volunteer work since 2017, when our System started a website (powertotheplurals.com) and Facebook group to support Plurals. In 2020, I founded TPA as a nonprofit. Since then, our System has built (together with our amazing other volunteers) what TPA is today: community, education, and advocacy that now reach hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

I've written over 85 articles, organized conferences, hosted meetups and chats, and worn every hat this organization has needed. TPA is still active: two conferences a year, regular events, monthly meetups, weekly chats. I am still leading this, just from bed, and often at great personal cost. All of it as a volunteer, and for years, with my own money.

Today, our System needs to ask for your help.

Earlier this year, I shared in The Plural Association Community for Plurals that I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), among other conditions I've chosen to keep private.

Recently, doctors also discovered three separate heart conditions, which explain the severe decline in my physical functioning. I now use a wheelchair every day and am often bedbound. I am a single parent, and my home is not wheelchair accessible, making this not just difficult, but genuinely unsafe.

The photos show me at the PAIS (Post Acute Infectious Syndromes) protest, my first time leaving the house in months, along with recent heart-rate data.

Even in a country with universal healthcare, complex chronic illness falls through the cracks. To see the one specialist who actually listened and helped, I had to switch to an insurance plan costing €800 more per year. Most of my appointments happen by phone or email because I'm too sick to attend in person, and every one comes with a co-pay.

I already survived cancer, which was discovered and treated with 3 surgeries successfully in 2017. I didn't have to fundraise then, my medications and surgeries were fully covered. But this time that is not the case and I need your help.

Now ALL of the possible medications my specialist may prescribe are not reimbursed. Moving to an accessible home is not covered, and I cannot pack or move myself.

On top of all this, my municipality continued to classify my disabilities as "psychiatric," despite written medical proof of three heart conditions and an ME diagnosis. My DID diagnosis is being actively used against me from multiple directions. I've been in this legal fight for over a year, and it has delayed essential support, housing adaptations, and accessibility equipment and the stress has led to a further decline in my health.

I live on Dutch disability income, which is 70% of minimum wage at a 100% disability rate. When I was healthier, this was manageable. I could volunteer full-time and put my own money into TPA without thinking twice.

But as my health has worsened, every bit of savings has gone to survival: buying my own wheelchairs, medical travel, care support, equipment, and daily adaptations that fall outside the system.

I no longer have a financial buffer and I need help.

What this fundraiser covers:

I've set this goal so I can stabilize my living situation, access proper medical care, and live safely with my child.

The financial weight of ME falls entirely on me — I have no family support to fall back on, and I am wholly dependent on government systems, health insurance, and the goodwill of others. I simply cannot carry this alone and I am asking for your support.

If the work of TPA has ever meant something to you, or if you simply believe in access, stability, and dignity, your support truly means the world.

Any amount helps. Sharing helps just as much.

Thank you sincerely,

Stronghold System

Founder, The Plural Association