A Tayside trans woman is looking to raise thousands of pounds to finally complete her transition.
Hannah Dalton, 30, from Alyth, identifies as a transgender woman and has been transitioning from male to female for the past four and a half years.
She is now hoping to undergo facial feminisation and breast augmentation surgery, however together they cost around £18,000 and she is unable to get them on the NHS.
Hannah said she had struggled with her identity for many years before she gained clarity.
She said: “I would look in the mirror and think it wasn’t right and I would regularly wish I had been born a girl and couldn’t work out why.
“It was not until I was in my 20s I became a bit more aware of it and was able to say ‘I am trans’.
“None of my family or friends have shunned me and I have an amazing supportive wife who has been there throughout everything – she is fantastic, I couldn’t ask for anyone better.”
Hannah is now looking to raise around £8,000 for the two surgeries, and said she will need to take out a loan to cover the remaining £10,000 needed.
She added: “When people suffer from gender dysphoria, it really messes with your head.
“It makes features and other parts of your body seem more masculine – other people say they can’t see it at all, but I have to deal with it and that won’t change until I get it fixed.
“It will make me feel way more comfortable in my own skin, which everyone has a right to.
“These things I can’t change by eating right and going to the gym, this needs surgical intervention.
“The Gofundme page is for £8,000 to take the brunt of the cost away but I will still need to take out a loan and that could have been a deposit on a house or a new car.
“It feels really vain to ask for help for something that seems so superficial but this means more to me.
“I need to deal with this for my mental health, it is hard because I have depression.
“I was speaking to my GP about facial feminisation surgery and I was referred on for cognitive behaviour therapy and it does not work, it is trying to think your way out of a situation you can’t get out of.
“I am on antidepressants now and they are fantastic for making me cope with day-to-day stuff and I can get up in the morning and go to work without feeling rubbish.
“It doesn’t get rid of the dysphoria but it makes the depression manageable.”
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