Britain's Youngest Sex Change Patient

KOMPAS.com - A 16-year-old boy is set to become Britain's youngest sex change patient after the NHS was said to have agreed to fund his £10,000 operation. Bradley Cooper, a trainee hairdresser who turned 16 on Friday, claimed he is old enough to make the life-changing decision to give him 'peace of mind'.

He has seen a psychologist and is on the waiting list to have an operation through the Hull and East Yorkshire NHS Trust within 18 months, he said. But campaign groups pushing for more efficient Government spending last night condemned the decision as a waste of taxpayers' money.

The cost cannot be justified while other patients are denied life-saving cancer treatment on the NHS, the TaxPayers' Alliance said. And sex change patients warned that a 16-year-old is too young and impressionable to have the irreversible procedure.

Miranda Ponsonby, a former member of the Household Cavalry who had a sex change from male to female at 56, said: 'The problem in undergoing surgery so young is that the person involved may not have had long enough to come terms with who they are.

'They might think they know their own mind but teenagers are so impressionable, and they may have got this thought into their heads through the people they have been mixing with.

'Once they've had the surgery it is too late, and they'll end up no happier than they were beforehand if they think they have made a mistake.'

Mark Wallance, from the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: 'The NHS must prioritise better to get the most effective results from its resources.

'When there are people dying of cancer who are told the drugs they need are too expensive, it is wrong to be funding less urgent procedures like this. Saving lives should come at the very top of the list.'

Bradley, who calls himself Ria, has been dressing as a girl since he was 12. He would borrow his mother's lipstick and wear clothes belonging to his three sisters, Claire, 24, Katy, 21, and 18-year-old Sophie.

He told the News of the World: 'I know people might say horrible things like the money could be better spent on other things.