Shirley did a great deal of hard work grooming me until the real image of Christine came out. My youngest stepdaughter, Beverley, who’s a beautician, also helped with make-up.I told people on a need-to-know basis initially. But when I’d had both ears pierced, started having my nails regularly manicured and my eyebrows shaped, and obviously when the beard and the pipe went, people started to notice the changes.The first time we went out together as two girls was at a Beaumont Society weekend in Colwyn Bay It was about four months after I came out I felt very nervous; my confidence was nil. On the Saturday, Shirley went out and for a walk around town and saw a doll’s house she wanted to buy. She came back to the hotel and asked for my help in carrying it I decided to brave it and changed into a dress. We bought the doll’s house, and when I got back to the hotel the sweat was just running down my face.

I thought: “God I’ve done it!”After that weekend, we started going out in the Village in Manchester on Wednesday evenings I’m far happier now I hold my head up when I go out What I’ve got in my bra or between my legs is my business I’m Christine and I’m a lady out enjoying myself It’s the best thing I ever did It’s given me a lot of strength and a lot of confidence. I can choose to be Rod, messing around in my workshop, or I can be Christine.But I’ve paid quite a high price because I’ve lost my daughter as a result. She’s getting married in July and I’m not invited to the wedding It hurts. She never fully accepted Shirley as her stepmother, and I think that she was looking for a way not to associate with us.

Once Karen found out about my cross-dressing, that was the excuse she needed. She told me she didn’t want me turning up at the wedding in a dress. I said I only wanted to be there as her father, in a man’s suit and men’s shoes, to give her away. She replied by saying that if I would not change my lifestyle, she wanted me out of her life She gave me an ultimatum; she hurt me very deeply. I don’t hate her for it, but I honestly don’t think we’ll ever reconcile after this.But for Shirley and I, it made us closer.