Trans woman and rights advocate Allyson Hamblett would love to set up a system which would pay for trans people to have surgery, and allow them to pay the cash back in a way they can afford. I had gender reassignment surgery almost 10 years ago, in June 2005. I inherited some money that allowed me to have the surgery in Phuket, Thailand with Dr. Sanguan Kunaporn. A trans friend came over with me as my support person. I paid her airfares, food and accommodation. We even had time to do some sightseeing. A year later, she returned to Phuket for her own surgery. My inheritance allowed me to pay for her surgery in 2006. She is still paying me back. I know she’s happy and I’m pleased that I was able to be in a position to help her. I remember the moment when I decided I needed to help. A group of us were having dinner together in Wellington. Tears of joy flowed as a solution was revealing itself. Since that time I’ve always thought wouldn’t it be great if other transsexuals could be supported to have surgery in a similar way; to be able to have surgery paid for, then a mechanism to pay back the money at an amount that the person could afford? I would love to set up a business that could fund surgery in this way, and would love to connect with business-minded people to support and work with me to make this happen. Wouldn’t it be great if we could convince the government to either fund more surgeries or set up a transsexual surgery loan that could be paid back over time? If you’d like us to put you in touch with Allyson, email news@gaynz.com Allyson Hamblett - 20th May 2015