A PAIR of childhood friends who played football together as boys are set to marry as man and wife years after reuniting when one of them underwent gender reassignment surgery.

    Christopher Dodd, 24, and Fay Purdham, 27, are now a couple, with the latter transitioning to become a woman at the age of 23.

    The pair, who now live in South Bank, Middlesbrough, grew up together as boys before losing touch as teenagers.

    Soon after they parted ways Fay, who was born Kevin, started her transition to becoming a woman by taking hormones.

    They reunited at a party years later and are now planning their dream wedding.

    “When I saw Fay again, I was gob smacked by how beautiful she was and I fell for her immediately,” said Dodd, who is studying chemistry at Middlesbrough University.

    “It took me some time to get my head around the fact that she used to be my best friend Kevin but I have never looked at her in any other way other than the fact she is a gorgeous woman.”

    The pair were inseparable as children and spent endless hours playing football. “Christopher was my best friend in the world when I was younger. We used to be together all the time from when I was about nine going on 10 — he was a close family friend — and we spent hours together playing ‘boy’ games when I was Kevin,” Purdham said.

    But even as a young boy she said she knew she was slightly different.

    “I used to play with cars and guns and play sports like my friends, but I also loved playing with dolls,” Purdham said.

    Aged 12, she realized she was gay and came out to her family after spending years dressing up in her sister’s clothes and wigs secretly.

    From then on the youngster became increasingly feminine, saving up her pocket money to buy women’s clothes and experimenting with make-up.

    Aged 16, she began taking hormones to begin her physical transformation, by which point Dodd had already moved away with his family.

    In fact the couple did not meet again until Dodd’s 21st birthday when Purdham, who is unemployed, turned up with her sister.

    They began dating, with Dodd eager to understand more about his new girlfriend’s transformation.(SD-Agencies)