Transgender beauty queen, 22, reveals she finally feels complete after a 10-year wait to have gender reassignment surgery
- Pammy Rose, 26, from County Durham, says she feels happier than ever
- Born Paul Witten, and first expressed questions about her gender aged four
- Revealed she feels complete after undergoing gender reassignment surgery
- Took her ten years to show psychiatrists she was serious about changing sex
A transgender woman who got through to the finals of a beauty competition without the organisers realising she'd been born a boy has had a full sex change.
Pammy Rose, 26, from Seaham, County Durham, was born Paul Witten, and first expressed she did not want to be in her male body aged four.
The 26-year-old dancer made headlines around the world in 2013 when she reached the final of a local beauty contest, without the judges realising there was anything different about her.
But it's only now that she feels like a true woman, after it took her a decade to prove to psychiatrists she was serious about changing sex.
Dancer Pammy Rose, 26, from County Durham, says she feels 'complete' after undergoing gender reassignment surgery
She was born Paul Witten and began questioning her gender aged four. She was bullied throughout school as children deemed her 'a freak'
Pammy said: 'I'm in a happy place. I'm now in the place I should have been all my life.
'I finally feel complete after all this time. This is what I have wanted all my life, it's what I needed.'
Share this article
She added: 'There's no words to describe how correct it feels. It is just a liberating feeling.
'It is everything I expected it to be and more.'
The stunning dancer won Miss Transgender England in 2016, and came second in the UK-wide competition
The beauty queen says she has been liberated by the surgery, having spent a decade dressing as a woman and taking hormones
Pammy went on: 'This is what I have wanted since I was a very small child. For the first time in my life I feel like my true self.'
Pammy told her mum Julie, 54, at the age of four that she did not want to be in her male body.
As a young boy, Pammy would dance and play with Barbies and hated the idea of mud or football.
During secondary school, she was singled out and targeted by bullies for being a 'puff', a 'tranny' and a 'freak'.
Pammy told her mother at the age of four that she did not want to be in her male body, and struggled throughout childhood with bullying
She was threatened and humiliated so much that she was scared to leave the house.
At the age of 14, Pammy decided to embrace who she really was. She started growing and bleaching her hair, wearing make-up full time and wearing the girls' uniform instead of the boys.
Over the next three years Pammy travelled with her mother and stepfather Ray to London and later Leeds for monthly meetings with psychologists and doctors.
A joke about her looking like Pamela Anderson soon led to her officially changing her name and at the age of 18 she became Pammy Rose.
At one stage the youngster was bullied so badly during school that she did not want to leave the house
The following year, at the age of 19, she started taking hormones.
In 2013, when she was 20-years-old, she was entered into a local beauty contest - The Face of Sunderland - by a friend.
Pammy made it to the final without the organisers realising she was transgender.
Three years later, in 2016, Pammy finished second place in Miss Transgender UK and bagged the title of Miss Transgender England.
The stunning beauty queen has revealed waiting a decade for gender reassignment surgery 'chipped away at her hopes'
Now, after a decade of living as a woman, Pammy has had gender reassignment surgery and says she is happier than ever.
But she says the decade-long wait to have the surgery had been difficult for her, and that she had struggled to cope.
She said: 'Ten years is such a long time to wait for surgery. The longer you wait the more it chips away at your hope of finally becoming yourself.'
But the dancer revealed it was all worth it, saying: 'When I woke up from the operation I cried.
Pammy made headlines when she made it to the final of a beauty pageant without the organisers knowing she was transgender. She went on to win Miss Transgender England in 2016
The stunning beauty queen continues to face abuse in the street, and says she is sometimes shouted at and spat at by men
'I remember looking at my mam and and saying 'I've done it, it's all over'.'
Over the last few years, Pammy has spoken publicly about her struggle to find work after being sacked from her job in a factory for wearing too much make-up and rejected by the boss of a cosmetic shop.
She has also told how she feared she would never find love after being shouted at and spat at by men.
Pammy said she has been has been called a 'freak' and 'disgusting' by men in bars who have shown an interest in her but turned nasty after discovering she was actually born a boy.
Pammy revealed that she woke up feeling emotional after her operation, but now feels 'complete' and happier than ever
Pammy says she felt disheartened by the decade-long wait she had for her surgery, saying it had 'chipped away' at her hopes
Two years ago, Pammy found love with a man who she remains in a happy relationship with.
And now, after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Leeds, Pammy said she is the happiest she has ever been.
She said: 'I have got the best people around me and I feel great. It just feels right.
'My partner has brought out the best in me and made me see life in a whole different way.
'Now that this chapter is over I can't wait for the next chapter to begin. I'm not going to let anything get in the way.'
