Siobhan's Gender Affirming Surgery - The Final Wee Bit!

I’m back! Hello

It’s hard to believe I started this fundraising four years ago. It’s been a rollercoaster, and it’s always hard to know how much of this to post online, but I feel like it makes sense to at least give a bit of an outline that will hopefully explain why I’ve lowered the target amount on here, why there’s been such a long silence on my fundraising and I suppose also why I’m even fundraising in the first place.

So briefly, I have been accessing NHS trans healthcare for over 9 years, and in that time, I’ve reached the top of a surgery waiting list *twice*. Both of those surgeons have refused to treat me based on my BMI. BMI is an outdated, unscientific and thoroughly debunked method of judging health and viability for surgery based on weight. For more info on BMI I really recommend finding the Maintenance Phase podcast and listening to the episode titled “The Body Mass Index” from August 2021.

Four years ago, having found a private surgeon in Europe who had said they were happy to work with me, I started saving money and working on this fundraising project.

I then managed to fund the surgery by combining my personal savings, funds from gofundme and other fundraising efforts.

Disappointingly, that surgeon, without ever saying why, backtracked and refused to treat me.

After feeling like I’d run into a wall with everything, the search for another surgeon started to feel overwhelming and exhausting, and had to be fit in around life things.

In mid 2024, we found a surgeon and a clinic who commit explicitly on their website to a more modern/informed consent model with regards to weight and surgery, and I reached out.

After several months on their waiting list, I’ve spent the last four months working towards booking a surgery with them, and they’ve been brilliant.

Unfortunately I’ve run into some unexpected additional expenses. On top of the fees for surgery, the expenses for travel, and somewhere to stay (so I’m not flying too soon after surgery), I’ve been quoted for additional fees for anesthesia, theatre fee and some overnight fees, which total $10 900.00

So how much am I looking to raise? According to the internet that translates at the moment to £8483.

Up til now, this gofundme has raised £5397, so to raise the additional £8483, the new overall target for the fundraiser is £13880.

So hopefully that explains why I need to work with a private surgeon, why there was a long break on this fundraiser and why I’m dropping my target amount!

Thanks so much to everyone who has already donated and in advance, thanks also to everyone who can contribute something to this last wee bit! <3