The past 4 years of early pregnancy losses, IVF(s), surgery(s) & living with Endo left me questioning my purpose, robbed me of my self belief, isolated me & hugely impacted my physical & mental health.

Kilimanjaro is a metaphorical & very real mountain to me; The furthest thing outside my comfort zone that my Therapist & I could think of! (caveat; he doesn't totally authorise this "extreme exposure" type approach BTW!) I don't want my losses to haunt me, or this disease to define me & hope somewhere up that bloody big hill I may just find some self belief in me & my body again.... I also hope I don't get an Endo flare at 5000+ metres!

What I learnt on my journey is no one wants to talk about this stuff. Well, in a bid to make positives out of my negatives, I DO! I want to raise awareness, change the rhetoric & hope sharing my story may be the support for someone else on this lonely path that I didn't find on mine.

I want there to be better Funding & Research into this chronic, full body, incurable disease. A disease that affects circa 190MILLION women and those assigned Female at birth, & I don't want anyone to be subject to an average of 8 year diagnosis time. Ultimately for me, an early diagnosis of my Endo and thus awareness of my fertility preservation options, could have secured a very different outcome.

Even if we simply talk more, share our experiences, remove outdated rhetorics & stigmas, it makes it feel worth it; like it was all for something positive. If you can donate funds to the Foundation, also great, they will be so thankful, and a big thankYOU in advance for taking the time to learn a little about Endo & be part of the journey.

PS: Donating through JustGiving is simple and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving and once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity.