I’m 24 and I live in the UK. I’m currently seriously unwell and have been basically housebound unable to work for about 6 months. I am appealing to you for something incredible, a little help to save my life and an opportunity to have a fresh start and make the most of that gift.
The National Health Service in this country have completely let me down. They have repeatedly misdiagnosed me and now can’t even get me an appointment for a consultation with a gynaecologist for several months. If they then agree to operate I could be on a waiting list for a further year. I was sent to a specialist a few months ago who diagnosed me with chronic fatigue. A family member then paid for me to see a private gynaecologist and have scans done. I was diagnosed with advanced endometriosis, adenomyosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome. I have been tried on all possible medical treatments for managing this, but the delays in diagnosis by the NHS have meant that the diseases are so advanced that nothing has worked. I now require a hysterectomy.
Without the surgery I will continue to live in severe and crippling pain. I have lost 27kg in the space of a few months and am now just skin and bone. We have managed to slow down my weight loss using vitamin supplements and meal replacement shakes with protein powder. I’m losing my hair and am not sure if it will grow back.
My GP has been aware of all of this as it has happened but has showed little interest except to say I have been referred to a specialist. Even when I cried on the phone to my GP and said I couldn’t live like this anymore and wanted to be dead, they just asked me a different question and then ended the call. I am in discussions with solicitors about medical negligence, but for now I just need to focus on getting the surgery done.
I am heartbroken at the idea of losing my uterus and fertility. I am young and have my whole life ahead of me. Me and my partner had plans for our future that involved children, and it is so difficult to accept that that may not get to be the case. However it is now a matter of life and death. Unless I present to A&E bleeding so profusely that I’m about to die, the NHS will not help me urgently. They will let me sit at home in agony, unable to work or go out or enjoy anything at all. They will let me waste away and sink deeper and deeper into depression and despair.
The private gynaecologist I saw has offered me the surgery. It could be booked for a months time if I can find the funds for it. I do not see any other way that I can, essentially, survive. Physically I am wasting away but mentally I cannot cope with the pain and suffering I am enduring. If I have to wait to see someone on the NHS and then be on a waiting list for surgery I just will not be able to cope with it. I have already had to be talked out of suicide several times. There is a good chance that even once I see a gynaecologist on the NHS they won’t agree to operate, at least not at first, because a hysterectomy at my age is considered controversial.
I have a way in front of me to heal, to get back to health and happiness, to get back to working and contributing to society and chasing my dreams of becoming a doctor (I am currently on leave from medial school due to the illness). But I am stuck because I have no savings and because I am not from a wealthy family. My mother and partner have used their savings to support me while I cannot work and to pay for the private consultation. But there is no way we could afford the surgery even on finance, and I have no other friends or family I could ask.
I ask of you something incredibly precious. An opportunity at life, at a new start, and getting to be who I want to be and to do the best that I can. I have had a hard life up until now, I had a traumatic incident as a child that I still recieve therapy for, I lived with chronic pain from age 10 to 21. I had a severe mental illness, and I cared full time for my nan from age 18. Now this illness feels like a tipping point where I can either give up, or fight like hell and turn everything around. I want to be a doctor and I want to live a full and happily life with my partner. We want to adopt children, and lots of dogs, and just be happy. This is the start of that.
The level of gratitude I would feel if you were to help me, and allow all that to happen, would be inexplicable. I am in the darkest moments of my life right now, but once I am through this I will never forget the kindness shown to me and will work to repay it in one form or another. I aim to get involved with campaigning for a more equal provision of gynaecology care in this country and to help support women with the kinds of illnesses I have had. My partner is also very ambitious with his own business and hopes one day to have enough money that every week we can log on to a website like GoFundMe and donate to a load of worthy causes.
I am asking for £10,000. This would cover all costs associated with the surgery plus the preoperative CT scan they have asked for.
I truly hope that there is a way you can help me but understand the gravity of what I am asking for. Thank you for reading and considering this request.