Help me represent patients with airway stenosis

My name is Catherine Anderson, and I have spent the last 15 years in the volunteer role of patient advocate, representing people with airway stenosis. I am the Founder of ‘Living with Idiopathic Subglottic Stenosis (iSGS)’, the world’s biggest support community for patients with airway stenosis. Using my professional research training, I work with doctors globally to research airway stenosis and am an author and co-author on more than 14 peer-reviewed published medical papers.

iSGS is a terrifying disease, impacting the patient’s breathing by slowly building up scar tissue in the subglottic area, just below the vocal cords, and restricting their ability to breathe. Airway stenosis can also be caused by autoimmune disease, airway damage from intubation and injury from heat or chemicals. I have been living with this for more than 20 years, with more than 30 operations to treat it.

I am frequently invited to talk at conferences, which rarely cover my costs of accommodation and travel and other expenses such as taxis and food. To date, I have covered these costs myself, but I am hoping, as invitations increase in frequency, for a small amount of help.

To cover the cost of hosting the Rough Guide and other papers ('What we learned') each year is £175 per year (I have covered this myself for the past 8 years). I of course ask nothing for my time for the preparation of these resources.

I have purchased business cards, and some cards for doctors to supply to their airway stenosis patients. Some of these have been mailed to doctors, and others were distributed at conferences. So far £100 spent on these.

Attending the European Laryngology Society (ELS) Conference in Milan in 2023 was £2,370, which included travel, accommodation, tickets and meals.

Attending the British Laryngological Association (BLA) Annual Conference in 2024 was £1,334 to cover costs of travel and accommodation as well as tickets.

I hope to attend the next ELS Congress in Warsaw, 2025 with these funds, and will share my notes from that.

If I have enough, I will also attend the BLA 2025 conference again in London, UK.

GoFundMe takes a 2.9% cut of all donations plus 30 cents.

I hate asking for money as I know everyone is stretched and gives so much to other causes, but I do hope you can spare a little. Even a small donation will help add up to the total amount.

Thank you so much in advance. If you have any questions or need any referees to confirm my invitation or any of the above costs, please let me know. I will be happy to oblige.

If I should exceed my target then the remaining funds will be used to attend future conferences…