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TS Tattoo Removal Dispute Print E-mail
Medicine - Medical Horizons
TS-Si News Service   
Wednesday, 19 April 2006 05:43
Criticised For Wasting Taxpayer Money
 
Tanya BainbridgeTanya Bainbridge, 57, from Middleton, says she needs the £2,500 laser treatment because her tattoos are "unladylike" and she can't wear sleeveless dresses in the summer.
 
Middleton and Heywood Primary Care Trust has approved the funding and Tanya is waiting for a date for surgery at Charing Cross Hospital in London, where she underwent her £20,000 sex-change operation on the NHS in 2001.
 
It is understood that health bosses will also pick up the tab for her travel expenses.
 
The decision to pay for tattoo removal has angered campaigners who were forced to fight for funding to receive the potentially life-saving breast cancer wonder drug herceptin.
 
Radcliffe mum-of-two Amanda D'argue, who has just started herceptin treatment after a 12-month campaign, said patients should be prioritised for NHS treatment according to need.
 
The 39-year-old said Tanya's gender was not an issue but people should be forced to pay for tattoo removal because they were a personal choice. "Having tattoos is a personal choice. Being diagnosed with cancer is not," Amanda said. "Funding for life-saving treatment should take precedent over funding for cosmetic treatment. Trusts say that the money is not there - surely there should be some sort of prioritisation."
 
Unemployed Tanya, who fathered nine children as Brian Bainbridge before her reassignment, says the surgery is essential for her well-being on "psychological" grounds. She had large naval designs tattooed on her forearms during a 12-year span in the Merchant Navy from 1964 as well as other personal tattoos. The tattoos include a ship and a swallow, as well as the names of some of her nine estranged children.
 
She said: "I understand that spending NHS cash on removing my tattoos might be controversial but it is essential for my well-being. "I have suffered from depression and the tattoos are not very ladylike. "I know there are cancer patients who can't get funding on the NHS, and I can see their side, but it is my life and I am entitled to this as much as anyone else. "I wish I had never had my tattoos done but I can't change that now. I need to get rid of them to make me more feminine."
 
Tanya lives with her partner of five years Mark Sutton, 48, in Hollins, Middleton. He told the M.E.N. that the tattoos had made her depressed. Mark said: "She has had a letter confirming the funding and is waiting for a date. "She just wants rid of the tattoos. They have been depressing her and she is embarrassed. "She wants to wear short sleeve shirts as they do not look very ladylike. She is a new person these days."
 
A spokesman for Middleton and Heywood Primary Care Trust said: "We are unable to comment on this case because of the Data Protection Act."
 

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Last Updated on Monday, 27 August 2007 16:00