A young trans woman has died after facing rape, robbery and prostitution on her road to full gender reassignment.

Synestra De Courcy died at the age of just 23 on 26 July, just days before Britain’s National Health Service wrote to tell her she would get treatment.

Her mother, Amanda De Courcy, of Stevenage, believes a lack of understanding about what she was going through contributed to her death.

Amanda told Hertfordshire local newspaper, the Comet: ‘She prostituted herself to afford hormones on the internet because her GP would not prescribe them.

‘There was a lack of understanding which was ultimately a death sentence to her.’

In a tragic coincidence, Amanda said she received Synestra’s referral appointment letter, meaning she would get gender treatment for free on the NHS, just days after she died.

‘It would have been so uplifting to her,’ Amanda told the Comet.

Amanda believes everybody has a fundamental human right to be themselves and should get treatment if they are born in the wrong body.

‘Having watched my child go through the emotional upheavals, the discrimination, the attacks, the rapes, the robberies, the drug taking for solace, I want to make a difference,’ she told the Comet.

She is setting up a charity called Synestra’s Trust.

It is being supported by the University of the Arts in London where Synestra had enjoyed studying cosmetic science in the last years of her life.

And it’s being backed by her old school, St Christopher in Letchworth where she had been a high achiever, gifted in most academic subjects. At the time, she still presented as male and was made head boy.

Synestra was quiet but a loyal friend, who loved to party and have fun.

But she also had a public side. She reached out to more than 18,000 followers by sharing her personal story through Facebook and YouTube.

Believing anything was possible if you try, she inspired many trans people and others.

Among the Facebook tributes to her, one wrote: ‘You were a massive inspiration to many and a lovely soul.’

Another added: ‘The brightest star I have ever met, I’ve never known anyone so intelligent or graceful – we shared many intense and amazing experiences together and laughed so hard we cried every time we met. I am utterly devastated. Goodbye beautiful girl, rest in peace, I will never forget you and will miss you forever.’

An inquest into Synestra’s death at a London house party has been opened and adjourned until December.

Her funeral took place at Harwood Park Crematorium in Stevenage on 21 August. Anyone wishing to donate may do so via Austins Funeral Directors.