My son was born Ashton Leah - a girl. However from an early age, a very early age, Ashton showed me that he was not a little girl.

Ashton always wanted boy toys - Spiderman or Star Wars were the preferred brands. Ashton never wanted to wear girl’s clothes - only boy's. He behaved like a boy.

Ashton’s behaviour didn’t bother me at all as long as he was happy, I assumed this to be normal.

It was when Ashton hit puberty that the real conflict within started to appear. Ashton was developing as a female physically and this just was not who he was. In his frustration he self-harmed. He couldn’t quite pluck up the courage to talk it through, I suspect he just didn’t know what to say, how to explain his feelings.

It was one evening, much like many others, Ash was obviously upset and frustrated. I sat with him in his bedroom for hours. Eventually he said the fateful words, “I don’t belong in this body, it’s not me”.

I was a little taken a back, I thought, naively, that Ash was perhaps a lesbian. How wrong I was.

From that point on it was a voyage of discovery which Ash and I took together and as a family. I wanted to know everything I could about Gender Dysphoria and how I could help make his life better. An organisation called Mermaids were a great starting point for me.

Suffice to say there were many issues along the way, these ranged from bullying at school to frustration and delays with appointments. Ash and I saw clinical psychologists and child psychotherapists around different parts of the country over a period of a few months.

Eventually Ash was able to start taking medication that inhibited the actions of puberty and even gave him some more masculine features.

When he was of suitable age he arranged for a mastectomy and I took him to that operation. I think it’s safe to say I’ve pretty much been by his side all the way, and I’ll continue to do so as this journey is far from over…