Transsexual lottery winner regrets paying for gender reassignment

By Tony Grew • August 10, 2006 - 0:00

Melaine regrets paying £21,000 for gender reassignment

4 Comments on Transsexual lottery winner regrets paying for gender reassignment

A transsexual who came to prominence in 2003 for funding her sex-change operation from a national lottery win has revealed to her local newspaper that she now regrets paying £21,000 for the procedure.

Mick Parltrow, then a 52-year-old lorry driver, won £250,000 and travelled to Thailand for the operation. Although she does not regret changing sex, Melanie feels the lottery win was no blessing.

After the operation, Melanie returned to work, but problems at home led to the break-up of her 25-year marriage. Previously her spouse had been supportive, even going shopping with Mick to buy women's clothes. Things started to deteriorate as the lottery cash dwindled, and Melanie was eventually forced to move out alone into a rented bugalow.

"I know I shouldn't have spent the money on the sex change operation. If I hadn't won the lottery, I wouldn't have had it done at that time," she told the Cannock Chase Post.

"My wife and I would still be together now - not living as man and wife maybe, but as friends. My wife, my son and myself, would all be living together still."

But despite the traumas, Melanie has no regrets about the gender reassignment itself. She summed up the situation to the Cannock Chase Post:

"Was it worth the price? No it wasn't, but I don't think I could've lived my life any other way. I couldn't have been Mick anymore. I had to do it."

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