Help Red get top surgery!

Hi. I'm Red. I am a 23 year old trans nonbinary indo-kiwi who uses they/them pronouns. I've never technically been out of the closet, more of a "if you know you know". Most of my family doesn't really know this about me, but if you are my family and you somehow found this, hi! Now you know! Doesn't really need much more explanation than that.

I am hoping to make a big step that I thought I would never be able to achieve. I am getting top surgery. I tried to apply through the public health service but unfortunately have been rejected. In May I had a consultation with the surgeon Dr. Rita Yang at Wakefield Hospital in Wellington and have tentatively looked at getting surgery towards the end of the year which is amazing.

But I need your help! The surgery is quoted at $24,102 which covers the surgery itself, overnight stay, the post op garment, theatre fee and the anesthetist.

I have some savings of my own, however, it will be at least 6 weeks for recovery, and I have a physical job that I will not be able to go back to until I have fully recovered. So I will need some of my savings to help get me by as I recover.

If I don't end up meeting my goal I will be using whatever funds I can get along with my personal savings to pay for the procedure. If those combined aren't sufficient I will be taking out a loan if I have to.

In the extremely unlikely event that I go over the donation goal, I will be donating all excess to other folks' surgery funds here on Givealittle and to Gender Minorities Aotearoa!

Header photo courtesy of my good friend Harley Bird!

(Further reading on my story ahead)

I've been living with pretty bad gender dysphoria since early high school, prior to that I didn't really have much of an identity until I found the language to describe it. Around 10 years ago I socially changed my name, how I started presenting and using they/them pronouns around my closest friends. I officially changed my name in 2018. I have never been happy with my appearance, particularly regarding my chest. I used to bind up until 2015 when I got a pretty bad chest infection that has left me permanently with asthma and never being able to bind again. I couldn't bind even if I really wanted to as I work up to 10 hours a day in a physical job in a hot environment (I am a chef!)

Because of this haven't been able to fully dress and express myself happily. Even occasionally catching myself in the mirror is something that can ruin my day. I have very few pictures of myself for similar reasons. I am hoping that by getting surgery I can finally find some sort of confidence in my appearance.