Former soldier, 65, demands a £20,000 sex change on the NHS to transform her from Doug to Roxanne



Roxanne Yeatman is having 'feminisation' lessons and taking hormones

She also wants surgery as she says she was 'born in the wrong body'

The surgery costs £15,000 and counselling and medication costs £5,000

Says she now just needs her consultant to give her the go ahead



A 65-year-old ex-soldier is demanding a £20,000 sex change operation on the NHS.



Roxanne Yeatman - formerly Doug - is having ‘feminisation’ lessons and now wants surgery as well.



The father-of-four, who was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery, says she was ‘born in the wrong body’.



Roxanne Yeatman, 65, formerly called Doug, wants £20,000 sex change surgery on the NHS because she was 'born in the wrong body'

She’s been learning to walk, talk and act like a woman at the Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital, London, and has been taking female hormones for two years.



‘I need this operation to be who I want to be,’ said Ms Yeatman, from Thamesmead, South East London. ‘I am just living day-to-day waiting for when I can get it done.’

Ms Yeatman, a retired security guard, joined the army at 16 and was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery for three years before being dishonourably discharged in 1968 for theft.



She moved to London and admits falling in with the wrong crowd, leading to time in prison, including a 28-month stretch in Wandsworth Prison.



Ms Yeatman is having 'feminisation' lessons and has been taking female hormones for two years

Now her only focus is on transforming her body and she hopes to get the go ahead from her consultant for the £15,000 operation.



The total bill for her treatment, including drugs and counselling will come to £20,000.



She said: ‘He needs to see how I get on to make sure my mind and body are ready, because once it’s done there’s no turning back.”



‘I used to play with the girls rather than the boys when I was little.



‘I was married 21 years then I thought the grass was greener on the other side.

‘It wasn’t bad for that time but something went wrong and then I thought I will be what I want to be now.’

Ms Yeatman used to be called Doug and was a Gunner in the Royal Artillery before becoming a security guard

Ms Yeatman is hoping to have the six-hour reassignment surgery done on the NHS and says she will be ‘very relieved’ when it’s done.



She said: ‘My family haven’t got anything bad to say about it, it’s down to me.



‘They don’t mind and it’s nothing to do with them really. My middle daughter says “it’s down to you dad - it’s your life and your body”.’