Danielle Hallet - who used to be called Darren - had always known she was in the wrong body.
But after undergoing a gender reassignment operation and spending £54,000 on cosmetic surgery, the Swansea woman says she is finally happy with who she is.
Ms Hallet, a software engineer who runs her own IT business, lost an incredible 20st over two years in the process.
"I’ve gone from a 35st baldy with a beard to a 15st brunette with boobs. Life is good," she said.
“I’ve never felt so attractive. The funniest thing is when people I’ve known for years or knew at school just don’t recognise me at all.
"It confirms to me just how far I’ve come.”
The 50-year-old said her earliest memories were of wanting to be a girl.
She added: “I went through school unhappily living a lie and piling on weight. I was 18st by the time I was 18.”
After years of comfort-eating, she was 38 when she began private hormone therapy and started living as a woman in 2006 with the support of her family.
Four years later, at 28st, she had a gastric band operation in Birmingham and had a £4,000 breast surgery operation in 2012.
However, it was only after a private £6,000 mini-gastric bypass in Belgium in 2017 that Ms Hallet, by then 35st, finally managed to begin the transformation she had wanted for 20 years.
“My weight had held back my dreams of properly becoming a woman. But after the Belgium op, still quite unheard of in the UK, it began dropping off me,” said Ms Hallet, speaking to the Mirror . “I felt ‘yes, I can do this now’.”
In 2018, Ms Hallet started to travel around the world using the best surgeons she could afford.
A face and neck lift and eyebag removal in Belgium was followed by a tummy tuck and bingo wings lifts in Estonia.
By spring she was back in the UK for a hair intralace operation to cover Darren’s old bald patch followed by more work on her face and an upper thigh lift.
Summer buttock implants in Belgium were followed by autumn dermal cheeks lips and forehead fillers in the UK – and a November buttocks lift in Turkey.
Her gender reassignment operation was in Bangkok in February.
Having had on average one procedure a month, Ms Hallet said she wouldn't recommend it, adding she saved to go private as NHS waiting lists were huge and there was no choice of surgeon.
She added: “The gender reassignment was by far the most painful. But being a woman made it so worth it.”
Now, Ms Hallet is a size 12, on a protein-rich diet, and even considering dating. She also started her own YouTube channel.
She continued: “I’m attracted to both sexes and will keep my eyes peeled.
“Losing weight and staying motivated can be so tough.
“I want to help others by sharing my story.”
