TRANSGENDER people in Oxford are fundraising for ‘life-changing’ sex reassignment surgery after NHS treatments were halted due to the coronavirus crisis.

'Trans' people shared their frustration with a system which, they say, has left patients on prohibitively long waiting lists.

Oxford tattoo artist Billy – who asked not to give their full name – launched a Go Fund Me appeal for reconstructive chest surgery because of the delay.

The 25-year-old, who identifies as 'transmasculine' and prefers to be addressed as ‘they’ rather than 'he' or 'she', and 'them' instead of 'him' or 'her', is offering incentives for those who donate to the cause including art prints and tattoo sessions.

Billy is currently in the process of acquiring hormone therapy, but their chest is the ‘major’ factor in their anxiety, and lack of confidence.

Something that really holds them back is body dysphoria – an anxiety disorder, often recorded with transgender people, that causes a person to have a distorted view of how they look.

They said: “Learning about top surgery was groundbreaking for me, but then the reality of the cost of getting there struck me in a whole different way.

“I come from a working class background, and I have been supporting myself financially since I was 15.

“There is no way that I can afford this surgery alone.”

Billy explained that they bind their chest almost daily, and have done so for the last few years.

Billy said they suffer from chest problems and asthma, so this process can be extremely painful.

They added: “Each day is a struggle and the wait times for top surgery on the NHS are, as we all know, long and terrifying.

“This surgery would change my life in ways that even I find hard to understand.”

Before the pandemic there were already so many barriers for trans and non binary people to get the support they need – especially those going through the process of transitioning.

Many, who can afford to do it, choose to go private because of lengthy waiting lists.

However, others – like Billy – are left waiting for months, sometimes even years.

That is also the case for Alix-James Hardy, also from Oxford,who has been transitioning for the last five years.

After waiting for more than a year and a half, Alix-James underwent therapy at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – a specialist mental health trust in north London.

Alix-James hopes to have surgery before they go to university next September but they have not heard anything for months because of the pandemic.

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They admitted to also suffering from suffocating’ body dysphoria.

They said: “I cannot live like this anymore.

“Going outside is becoming the most harrowing experience I have to face everyday.

“In 25-degrees-heat I cannot bare feeling like I have to wear hoodies all the time, and feeling ill because of the heat. I cannot shower without a mental breakdown.

“I know that a lot of people will understand this is not just an experience or feeling felt just by me. It is why I feel I could do this.”

Alix-James has only raised a little more than £500 from the £6,000 target, while Billy has raised almost £2,000.

To support Alix-James's fundraiser visit gofundme.com/f/alixjames-top-surgery-ftm and to contribute Billy’s Go Fund Me go to gofundme.com/f/bbh36w-billy039s-fund