Gender Affirming Surgery Support for Jeri Kimber

Hi! My name is Jeri. I am a social services worker just outside of Vancouver, BC. I’ve never made a GoFundMe before so I’ll do my best to be as descriptive as I can.

For as long as I can remember I’ve never felt right in my body. The way I looked and presented myself felt wrong somehow, and this was most apparent with my genitals. I was jealous of folks with vaginas, and for years I felt weird and alone because of those feelings. Fast forward to my adulthood, where I discovered the trans community and the concept of dysphoria, and everything clicked into place— I was transgender! Suddenly there was a pathway to living in a body that made me feel complete and truly happy in.

Many social connections, therapist appointments, and meetings with doctors later, I’m now in line for gender affirming surgery (vaginoplasty). I'm due to have the surgery performed with GRS Montreal in February 2024! Everything I need is now in place... except for some critical funding.

I haven’t been able to save near as much money as I will need to in order to pay for everything. Even with my provincial health insurance covering the cost of the actual surgery, there’s still a whole host of things I’ll be personally responsible for. Travel expenses, post-operative care supplies, time away from a work— none of these are free. My savings aren’t enough to adequately cover all of my expenses.

A two week hotel stay in Montreal for myself and my husband (who will be my primary support person during all this) comes to almost $2000 on its own. My flights and his are also about $425 each coming from both directions, totaling $1700. In addition, my post-operative care supplies are hard to calculate since I don’t know how well I’ll heal or what complications may arise, but the base cost for what GRS Montreal suggests I acquire is about $150; however, because this is under the unrealistic assumption I won’t need to purchase any replacements this figure will almost certainly be higher. All of these amounts are before tax and other related fees.

I’m setting a target goal of $5000. This will be enough to adequately cover flights, accommodations, supplies, as well as a bit extra for emergencies. If this campaign should exceed that amount in donations, any extra funding will go toward bills, rent, and groceries while I am off work in recovery.

Whatever you may be able to donate is greatly appreciated and I can’t thank you enough for being willing to contribute! I’ll have regular updates as time goes on. Feel free to reach out with questions and feedback!