Mum reveals moment her child told her he was transgender and how she coped with ‘losing a daughter’
Tearful mum Karen Parker couldn't even look at son Lucas when he emotionally revealed that he identified as a man - but has since come to accept his new identity
A TRANSGENDER teenager and his mum have opened up about the struggles of his transition from daughter to son in a moving documentary about gender-reassignment.
Lucas Parker, now 21, realised aged 18 that he wasn’t merely a tomboy but that he identified as a man.
Mum Karen took the initial revelation badly - but came to accept Lucas as her son after a series of emotional late-night chats between the pair.
She said: "I cried, he asked me to help choose his new name from a list and I told him I couldn't, I had chosen his name all those years ago."
"We all had to find our own ways of dealing with it, but it came down to the fact that we loved him and if this is what he needs to do to be happy, then we have to accept and support that. We have taken it one step at a time."
She also revealed how she still finds it hard and is coming to terms with never being the "mother of the bride".
But while she mourns Lauren when she sees mums on TV with their daughters, she has come to accept the new identity - and remains fiercely proud of her new son.
She said: "Boy or girl, I still love him, that doesn’t change. It’s kind of like a grieving process for Lauren.
"And then I have to think, I’ve got a new son."
Brave Lucas joked: "I wouldn't be here it wasn't for her - she just baked me wrong in the oven"
He also bravely spoke about how he was terrified he could lose his mum and how at the beginning his mother even struggled to look at him.
The brand new three-part documentary series for ITV has been filmed over a 12-month period with unprecedented access to a private clinic on Wimpole Street in London.
On this street, transformations become reality for people who share everything from waiting room laughs with fellow patients, receptionists and clinic staff, to the surgery itself and the impact their transition has on those closest to them.
The clinic has seen a huge number of applications for the surgery from people who identify as trans, from truck drivers to care workers and even a dominatrix, from Bognor to Birmingham, as they make the biggest change of their lives.
On the show, viewers follow their journeys, from hormonal treatments, makeovers and voice coaching, to the final step of gender confirmation surgery itself.
The number of adults seeking medical intervention to change their gender has more than doubled in the last five years.
But with up to two-and-a-half years to wait currently on the NHS just for an initial consultation, many patients are turning to private clinics.
The clinic is run by world-renowned plastic surgeon Christopher Inglefield, who specialises in transgender surgery and has been performing procedures for over ten years
The documentary charts the pair's journey as Lucas embarks on a round of punishing gender-reassignment surgery after friends and family came together to raise the £10,000 needed.
Transformation Street starts on ITV at 9pm on Thursday.
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