Amy

I am fundraising because nothing changes until we fund the change we deserve!

I need you. And we need dollars. Real ones.

I was 13 when I got my period. Within a year I was in excruciating pain every single month. My doctor told me I was constipated.

I was not constipated.

For seven years I was dismissed. Gaslit. Told I was the problem. At 20 I finally got a doctor who believed me. Endometriosis. I cried — not because I was scared. Because someone finally listened.

What followed was the next 29 years of my life. Surgeries every 18 months. Drug-induced menopause at 23. A GP who eventually stopped taking my calls. My 30s and 40s in pain, pretending I was fine.

At 49 a doctor walked in and offered me a hysterectomy. Through tears I said fuck yes.

I am pain-free now. And I am grateful every single day. But I traded one invisible condition for another. Surgical menopause. Barely any research. Barely any support. Nobody talks about it. I am 52 and still navigating a system that was never built for me.

Then my best friend called about his daughter. In her 20s. Same dismissal. Same pain. 35 years later and nothing has changed.

That was it for me.

No more gaslighting. No more waiting. It is time to put our money where our memes are.

I built The Down There Affair because I refuse to let her story end the way mine almost did. Because 7 cents of every Canadian health research dollar goes to women's health and that number hasn't moved or changed in decades. Because there is chewable Viagra but no cure for endometriosis. Because we are 51% of the population and we deserve better — every day, for as long as we live.

On September 26th I am walking through Toronto in my underwear. Not as a stunt. As a statement. I built this walk. I am this walk.

I am asking you to fund it.

Together we RAISE. Together we RISE.