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A transgender woman who has suffered from a barrage of abuse has bravely spoken out to help others who are going through similar experiences - and urges them "not to hide away".

Rebecca Mercer has been a victim to multiple verbal taunts which caused for her mental health to decline and made her feel like she had to lock herself away in her home.

Now Rebecca is sharing her story in hopes that she will be able to help somebody else who is going through a similar situation.

The 43-year-old said that she has been out in the town centre when she has had people shout things at her such as "that's a man in a dress".

Rebecca said: "I have also had a guy who was pushing a child in a pushchair follow me through the Armada Centre, shouting how people like me disgust him .

"Just a couple of weeks ago I had two teenagers on bikes follow me through the bottom end of town calling me a 'tranny'. That's not all of it, but you get the idea."

Rebecca said that it is not just "obvious abuse" that hurts her, but that there are "even people who work in shops that think it's funny to call [her] sir" even when she has corrected them.

She added: "The abuse does hurt, but I think what makes it worse is when it's in public, some people just stop and stare at me.

"Other people laugh. Some look the other way.

"I do understand why people don't like getting involved, and I don't expect anyone to come running to my aid, but to just stand there and stare, makes it worse."

Rebecca experienced two instances of verbal abuse in the space of a week and said that it "completely broke" her.

"I completely withdrew from my friends and I would only leave my flat if it was absolutely necessary.

"My anxiety was already high due to my borderline personality disorder, and that sent it through the roof and a major depression hit me, I shut myself away for months.

"I would go to work and my transgender support group meetings, and that was it" said Rebecca.

Rebecca, who suffers from crippling depressions, anxiety and borderline personality disorder, locked herself away for months until a friend from her support group convinced her to go along to an exercise class.

Rebecca was badly bullied throughout school and hated p.e because she was "so bad at it" and it gave the bullies "something extra to bully" her about.

This put Rebecca off of all exercise and meant that she had to be "dragged kicking and screaming" to the exercise class- but surprised herself when she attended.

Rebecca said: "That first session was very scary, I don't think I talked to many people, I thought I would be kicked out off the class if I got a move wrong.

"But it wasn't like that, everyone was welcoming and no one cared if I got the moves right. I even got a well done from the instructor Hannah at end off the class.

"The following week my friend couldn't go and I wasn't going to go, but my mental health was at its worst and I knew staying at home was the worst thing I could do.

"At the time I had already attempted suicide a couple off times so that's why I couldn't stay at home. So I went that second week and the same thing happened, everyone one was welcoming but I also noticed that it calmed me down a bit.

"I kept going, after a while I noticed while I was doing Rockfit I wasn't thinking about anything else, and for the first time in my life I was enjoying exercise."

Rebecca noticed that her anxiety was reducing during the classes and was also "transferring" to her day to day life and then started to join other classes.

She now does five exercise classes a week and has also entered to run in the Cardiff Half Marathon, and will be raising money for her support group.

Rebecca said: "I honestly don't know why people think it's ok to abuse transgender people.

"A lot of my transgender friends have experienced abuse in recent times, it's not like we are doing anything wrong, we're just being true to ourselves.

"All we are trying to do is be happy.

Rebecca said the best advice she can give people who have been through what she has is not to hide away.

She added: "Don't do what I did and hide away, the best thing we can do is not let the haters keep us locked away in our homes.

"I use exercise classes to get me out and about and mixing with people.

"They have really helped beat my anxiety, although I still get very anxious at times, the reality of a situation is never as bad as your mind can make it seem."