This is a call for assistance in bringing my heart's desires to fruition.

I am a non-binary, black woman working on my first ever poetry collection! I have been working on this project, coming close to two years in April. Unfortunately, I have been in and out of work due to some health complications I am battling. It began in November 2024, when my arm began to lose mobility and since then up until this very moment, healing this arm has been a rollercoaster. Constant hospital and GP appointments, trying to figure out the cause. Constant misdiagnosis, until this month of march after finding a lump in my neck, and learning from an US (ultrasound) that it has been the cause for my nerve pain in my arm.

I am writing this with anxiety and fatigue, currently awaiting for more scans and tests following an excruciating needle biopsy two weeks ago that has set back all the healing and progress I had made. The needle was inserted in the lump to extract a sample. This was done twice. As the lump is on my nerves a shooting pain ran through my arm the entire time. I would never wish this pain on anyone. After the biopsy, the consultant deconstructed the results with me and my mom and stated that the lump is essentially a ‘nerve sheath’. However what we were not expecting was him stating that the lump is possibly mutating. I am sure ‘you know what’ is coming to mind but for now nothing is confirmed.

I have had a lot of my savings for my book spent on services outside of the NHS to help with healing and due to being unfit for work it is getting harder and harder to sustain just myself and support my project. I come to you all humbly, asking if you could consider donating to help fund “End of the Beginning”. It would mean the world to me to finally have my work materialised in the world and in my hands. EOB is about rebirth. It’s about navigating growth in today’s world, through love, grief, politics, and pain. Through this collection I am making my journey back to myself as I make peace with my childhood and early teens (the beginning) in hopes of the next stage of my life (adulthood, act two, etc) to be experienced with open arms and an open heart.

The funding would help cover the graphic design, printing, marketing and hiring a venue for the launch at the end of April 2025.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! If you can please donate! If you cannot please share so it can reach as many people as possible!

With love and care,

G.D.N x