Freddie’s Top Surgery

Hi, my name’s Freddie and I’m a 22 year old trans person from Wales. I’ve been very fortunate so far that I’ve been able to access the help and care that I’ve needed through the NHS. It hasn’t been a smooth process but it’s been manageable. However, I’ve now reached the point where the waiting times are too long for me. 

I’m raising money because I’ve made the decision to go private for top surgery. I’ve been wearing a chest binder every day for 7 years which is uncomfortable on a normal day but it gets even worse in the summer or on long days where I end up needing to wear it for way more than the recommended 8 hours. Top surgery would make it possible for me never to have to wear a restrictive binder again and would make me free to do so much more than I can at the moment. I’d be able to go swimming again for the first time in years, be able to wear vests in the summer without worrying about whether or not my binder is showing, I could exercise and not feel so self conscious, and just generally be more free to do what I want and what I enjoy. 

I’ve booked a consultation with a surgeon I like in Brighton for the end of September whereas if I waited for the NHS the time for this is currently indefinite due to these services being on hold from everything happening with Covid-19. From what I’ve been told by the hospital the estimated wait times for private surgery is 4 weeks between consultation and surgery itself so in theory I could have had surgery by the end of October.

The guide price for the surgery itself is £6,600 but I’m currently only putting half of that as the goal because I’m lucky enough that my family are giving me a hand and I’ve got some savings but I could still use all the help that I can get. Any money that is raised from this will go towards the surgery cost as well as travel, and accommodation near the hospital for the first few days of recovery.

I was unsure about starting a fundraiser to begin with because I don’t want anyone to feel pressured or obliged to donate but if you did want to then it would mean so much to me!

P.S. for anyone who knows me I’d like to offer some odd jobs as a thank you. Some things I’ve thought of that I can do for example are building flat pack furniture, picking up shopping, doing little deliveries, or even wrapping Christmas presents if you wanted to wait until later in the year. If there’s anything else that I could though just let me know!