Endometriosis: raising awareness one spray-can at a time
20 November 2019
Jaimee Rae McCormack was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2015.
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places in a woman’s body, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Sufferers can experience chronic, debilitating pain and though the condition affects 1 in 10 women, it receives relatively little attention.
Jaimee wanted to change that, and the artist started painting walls across Cardiff to let the world know that endometriosis exists.
Jaimee: Endometriosis Exists
Jaimee started painting walls across Cardiff to let the world know endometriosis exists
“I first started trying to raise awareness because, honestly, I was really frustrated that I was going back and forth to the doctors so often and no-one believed me that I was in pain,” she said.
“I was just being told ‘don’t you think it’s just a bad period? Do you think that this is just in your head?’ And quite frankly, it started to really wind me up.
“I got frustrated and thought there must be something that I can do to try and change people’s minds and let them know that endometriosis exists.
“So that’s when I first started spray-painting the side of my last house, to create something to try and stop people in their tracks and look and think ‘What is that? I don’t know what that word is. Maybe I should Google it’.”
Shortly after Jaimee began her ‘Endowalls’ project, she started to receive messages from other women who also have the condition. She has added the names of these fellow sufferers, or Endo Warriors, to her painted walls.
“Slowly, messages started flooding in from women all over the world,” she said.
“I added their names and... Well, the first wall had over a thousand names and since then, creating a further two walls, I’ve spoken to about 2,000 women from all over the world that suffer.”
Endometriosis symptoms can include pain during or after sex and difficulty getting pregnant.
“It’s changed my life completely,” she said.
“Some of the worst symptoms will be chronic pain, sickness and diarrhoea, fatigue…
“It was really difficult to get diagnosed. It was just back and forth to doctors, getting different opinions from people, seeing if anyone had any suggestions.
“In 2013 I spent a month in hospital. I went and had acupuncture and that’s the first time I ever heard the word endometriosis.
Jaimee Rae McCormack...
Endometriosis exists, and so do we
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“It still took another two years of pestering the doctors before one said perhaps we should do an operation and check and see if that is what’s causing your pain. I was diagnosed in 2015.”
“All of these names are of other Endo Warriors from all across the world. They are women that suffer with the condition and have had to live with it, and fight to be believed and heard that they are in pain.
“There is no cure for endometriosis, so we stand together to try and make a difference and let the world know that endometriosis exists, and so do we.”
