When I got my first job at 14 I was paid cash in hand as a dishwasher at a roast shop and saved every note in a kettle in dreams of getting top surgery one day.

Now at 20 and many jobs later I am still saving everything I can to fulfil this goal.

I grew up in a relatively conservative rural town where the word “transgender” was rarely understood or heard. I came out at 12, and over time my identity and body has often become a topic of politics and discourse. Getting help from medical professionals in a rural area was often a lost cause - having doctors refuse help, or having doctors ask to scan my head to see if I had a “male or female brain” to prove I was real. In such a short time I have seen so many changes to the practices in which the medical system treats and sees transgender people (I am still diagnosed with “Gender Identity Disorder”!!). Unfortunately in the Medicare system, gender affirming surgeries are not considered medically necessary, and instead cosmetic. It is strange that while I have been diagnosed with the “disorder” of being transgender, It is not considered medically necessary to treat it.

This lack of assistance from Medicare now means that I need some help to afford this long awaited and necessary treatment. Though I have poured everything of my working life to this surgery, I have still come out the other end a bit short - having recently moved to the city and started University. The money raised from this fundraiser will go towards reaching the end of my saving goal for my surgery costs in July 2025, as well as the necessary expenses involved in the weeks after in healing.

From young ages I have bound my chest with all sorts of garments, often at the cost of my physical health and wellbeing. Binding is not relieving, it is simply a repetitive necessity that often leaves me with searing blisters or chest pains. Top surgery is not just a remedy for physical pain - it is also a way for me to feel genuinely engaged in my life. Though I am an advocate for radical self acceptance in trans conversations, I am also very aware that I have never thought of a future without this surgery. This step has, and always will be, necessary for my livelihood. It is exhausting as much as it is exciting, but it is undeniably necessary.

Any and all contributions to this fundraiser is met with all my love and gratitude. Any kind of support - even just sharing a link - is wonderful and appreciated.