Squaddie's battle for a sex change operation
EXCLUSIVE by Sarah Arnold and Katie Evans 19/09/2010
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/19/squaddie-s-battle-for-a-sex-change-operation-115875-22571535/ (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/09/19/squaddie-s-battle-for-a-sex-change-operation-115875-22571535/)
Stuart, who is having a sex-change and now calls himself Sophie, says: "As paratroopers hurl themselves 800ft into the abyss they mentally say '1,000, 2,000, 3,000, check canopy!'
"I did that exactly when I went out dressed as a woman. I had to brace myself before stepping outside my front door but once there my fears evaporated. It felt so right."
Stuart, 32, is unrecognisable as the muscular lance corporal who proudly wore his red beret serving in Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone.