A BURNLEY transsexual says she has been left 'half man, half woman' after doctors refused her breast surgery.

Cathy Ann Daniels, 57, formerly known as Keith Stanstead Daniels, underwent a £60,000 sex change in London 18 months ago.

But the former builder, who has three children, claims her GP in Burnley will not refer her for a £5,000 breast operation on the NHS to complete her transformation.

Health bosses said breast augmentation was a cosmetic procedure, not routinely funded by NHS East Lancs.

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said cosmetic surgery ‘must come second’ in the wake of health service cuts, but a transgender charity has branded the move a ‘geographic lottery’.

Miss Daniels, of Redvers Street, said: “I have been left half man, half woman because my doctor will not refer me to the PCT for breast augmentation.

“I have undergone half the operation, but now I’m being kept in limbo because apparently there is no funds.

“Breasts are a really important part of being a woman and being like this is making me suicidal.

"It’s horrible. I’m neither one or the other. My lower half is a woman but my top half is a man.”

Michelle Bridgman, of the Gender Society, said: “This has always been a geographic lottery.

"Some PCTs will fund and some simply will not.”

Miss Daniels said she realised she was trapped in the wrong body when she was just eight years old.

She was bullied for being different and only had female friends.

“When I was 13, I had a female friend who was helping the army cadets run a jumble sale,” she said.

“She dared me to put on a swimming costume and I did. From that moment all doubts went out of the window.”

She said her condition led to four marriages breaking down.

“Each time they left me because they caught me cross dressing,” she added.

Miss Daniels moved to Burnley from Hampshire a year ago after meeting her new partner online.

She said: “He is the only thing that stops me doing anything silly but he knows how much I need to have the second part of this operation.”

Now she intends to fight the decision through the courts.

“This is affecting my life badly and suppressing my human rights,” she added.

Miss Daniels, who also has HIV, has enlisted the help of transsexual Miranda Lee, 40, from Southend who made headlines in 2009 after she won her case against her PCT for the right to breast augmentation on the NHS.

Burnley MP, Gordon Birtwistle is supporting the NHS.

“Money should be spent on life-saving and urgent-care treatment rather than on cosmetic surgery.

“With everything that has happened in Burnley, including the closure of the children’s ward and A&E department, cosmetic procedures have to become a second priority.”

An East Lancs PCT spokesman confirmed breast augmentation was considered a cosmetic procedure and was not routinely funded by the NHS East Lancashire.

He added: “Currently breast reconstruction is only funded following mastectomy for patients who have had breast cancer.”

He said exceptional cases could be submitted to the Individual Funding Request Panel.

The panel decision is then based solely in clinical terms.

Personal, social or psychological circumstances will not be taken into consideration.