A Scots trans musician has launched a fundraiser for transition medical care after claiming she has not heard back from an NHS referral for over a year.
Cam Pickthall was born male but came out as transgender in early 2019 before being referred to an NHS gender clinic in February 2020 by her GP.
But the 22-year-old claims she has not even received confirmation from the NHS that her referral has been acknowledged or is being processed.
Cam, from Lossiemouth, Moray, has spent almost £1,000 going to a private gender clinic for the past ten months in order to access hormone prescriptions.
She has been on HRT during that time and said it has been the happiest time of her life.
Cam has now turned to fundraising to help pay for further hormones, laser hair removal and future transition expenses.
She described the thought of not being able to afford her future transition expenses as “personal hell”.
The Scots music producer, who is also known as Kavari, launched a GoFundMe page on Monday and has already raised £1,600 in two days.
Speaking today Cam said: “I made my GoFundMe as being transgender in the UK makes healthcare very inaccessible unless you have a steady income or are willing to wait potentially years for appointments with the NHS.
“I’ve been under the care of a private UK gender clinic for the past 10 months in order to access the basic things I need such as hormone prescriptions.
“Since starting hormones I’ve been the happiest I’ve been since I was around 13 years old but the pricing is quite a burden.
“I had originally been referred to an NHS gender clinic in February of 2020 but I am yet to even have confirmation that my referral has been acknowledged or is being processed.
“I’ve been paying for this all myself through my work as an artist with some additional support from my family, but a recent incident showed me that I can’t rely on them for the support they seemed to have been giving me unconditionally for so long.
“This put me in a difficult situation as, being an artist, my income fluctuates quite a bit especially due to the pandemic and the possibility of losing access to medication that has been vital to my well-being due to lack of funds is terrifying.
“I need to be on this medication for the rest of my life and without it my mental health would decline so rapidly I don’t even want to imagine the state I would end up in.
Cam has already received horrific abuse online for launching her fundraiser.
She continued: “Even the act of putting myself out online, allowing my personal information to be so freely available and public, this puts me at such risk.
“I’ve already begun receiving abuse. My GoFundMe has been called a ‘modern disease’, I’ve had people rudely asking if I’m ‘a man or a woman’
“I’m putting myself into an ocean of potential harm just to try and ensure security and safety for myself. It’s really saddening.”
Cam wrote on her GoFundMe page: “I’ve been on HRT now for just over 10 months after having to go under the care of a private gender clinic due to lack of NHS support, and I can’t begin to describe how happy I have been.
“It’s been the happiest time of my life. The possibility of not being able to afford my hormones, laser hair removal, and general expenses for my transition is terrifying beyond words.
“The best way I can describe this would be my own personal hell.”
A University of Bath trans mental health study in 2012 found that almost half of trans people in Britain have attempted suicide at least once and 84 per cent have thought about it.
A spokesperson for NHS Grampian today said: “As a health board we cannot comment on individual patient cases. We would strongly encourage patients with any concerns to contact us directly.
“When a patient does make direct contact with us, we are more than willing to discuss their case with them.
“The current wait for appointments at our Gender Identity Clinic is longer than we would like and we apologise to patients affected by this.”
To donate, please visit: https://gofund.me/2106be60
