My IVF Surrogacy Fund
Donation protected
Kia ora,
Ko Ariana tooku ingoa. It has not been easy writing this, and has taken me a long, long time to come to terms with. It makes me really emotional reading my story, reliving such vivid memories on such a public platform. I still struggle to talk about this openly, but I am facing a turning point in my life where I want to share.
When I was a young girl, I was diagnosed with a rare condition called Vascular Anomaly. My malformation is a knot of veins and arteries that swell and gradually grow when I am going through pubescent changes, or when my stress levels are high. Less than 1% of people live with Vascular Anomaly in the world.
Vascular Anomaly made many facets of my life difficult, one of them being school. Not feeling comfortable to talk about my condition landed me in tricky situations at school. I regularly felt humiliated when I had to exclude myself from group activities. It was a horrible period of my youth.
I remember days spent depressed in bed, cursing the world for creating me like this. Every game I'd watch from the sideline, fuelled that heavy feeling of loneliness. Knowing absolutely no one suffering this, made me frustrated and angry. I am just blessed to have been surrounded by such loving, caring friends and whaanau. You are all my reason for helping me find my inner strength. He toa taumata rau (Bravery has many resting places).
Fast forward too mid 2021, this brought me to my check up specialist appointment. I wanted to explore my options for surgery to maintain my anomaly's growth, but was met with sad news. There are no specialists left in Aotearoa to perform such an intricate operation - yet. The specialist who had performed on my leg had retired, and the training surgeon next in line had left due to injury. Although there is a push for more specialists in this field, I'd have to wait several years until they are trained and qualified to perform. I was devastated to receive this news, but this worsened when the doctor told me I shouldn't have kids. I just want to make it clear, I can have kids, but I risk putting my body through unpredictable pain because of the tumour growing during a hormonal change. I run a guaranteed risk of malfunction if I was too carry a natural pregnancy.
Although I want to have my own clan one day, I have had to accept that this will not be achieved in the traditional way. Ka mate kāinga tahi, ka ora kāinga rua (When one door closes, another opens). After exploring my options, I am excited to share that I will be saving for IVF Surrogacy!
I am excited to share this next chapter with you. I'd appreciate any koha you'd like to give, and in return will update this fund story with my journey. It will be a long road to the end goal, but I am proud to share this with you. It is a costly process that I've realised will take years to afford, especially as I plan to do this more than once. I have attached several links about IVF Surrogacy in Aotearoa, so you can be well informed about what steps I'll be taking, and the treatments and costs etc..
Noo reira,
teena koutou,
teena koutou,
teena koutou katoa.
Organizer and beneficiary
Ariana Maihi-Marder
Organizer
Gladstone, NZ
Madison Kingston
Beneficiary