Cloacal exstrophy

JOELLA HOLLIDAY, the sex-change child whose long battle for official recognition as a girl was championed by Princess Diana, was today celebrating a landmark victory over bureaucracy.

Ten-year-old Joella was born with cloacal exstrophy, which affects one child in 150,000.

Initially she was thought to be male and was christened Joel David, but six months later doctors advised that she had a better chance of a full life if she grew up as a woman. At 17 months she had an operation, but her birth certificate still said she was a boy and the authorities refused to change it. Her mother Julia Farmer wrote to the Princess at Kensington Palace in 1996, detailing Joella's plight and asking if she could help. Diana replied, telling Mrs Farmer she was thinking of her and hoping for a successful outcome, although she added that she could not intervene in the legal issues of the case. Mrs Farmer, 28, of Pinchbeck, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, was heartened by the support, which she said gave her strength to carry on her fight. Now the Office of National Statistics has taken the unusual step of agreeing to allow the birth certificate to be changed. It means the bureaucrats, after being presented with a 47-page report from an expert and evidence from the chaplain who performed the first christening, have recognised a medical mistake was made when Joella was identified as a boy at birth. Joella's second christening, as a girl, will take place in her village church just before Christmas. The by COLIN ADAMSON Victory: Joella Holliday has won an eight-year battle to change her bir th certificate af ter being named as a boy delighted schoolgirl's first words on hearing the news were: "It means a lot to me. Does this mean that I can get married, mum?" Her mother said: "There were so many obstacles in the way - right down to us being refused legal aid - that they must have thought we wouldn't carry on. It was our persistence that won out. I don't think I will believe it until the birth certificate is in my hand. We are still waiting for a copy to arrive." Mrs Farmer added: "It would only have taken a 'no' and we were ready to go to the High Court." The family is looking forward to the second christening. Mrs Farmer said: "After that she can just get back to being a normal girl. Joella has already undergone dozens of operations for her condition, and it is marvellous that all the pain she went through has not been for nothing." Joella, who has had hormone treatment, still faces further operations, but she never complains. Her mother said: "Joella is such a determined girl. On sports days in races the rest of the kids are at the end before she gets started. But she doesn't mind. She gets there in her own time." HER solicitor Diane Miller said: "I am very, very pleased the Office of National Statistics has relented now. This is unique as far as I know. There must have been other children born hermaphrodite." Joella's case was said to be regarded as a special one and the ruling does not affect hundreds of transsexuals who want their gender officially changed - the law does not allow them to change their birth certificates. Joella was born with her bladder and intestines outside her body, there was no abdominal wall and she had incomplete genitalia. Mrs Farmer said: "When I came round they wouldn't tell me whether I had a boy or girl. All I knew was that she had a hole in her stomach. "Then the chaplain came in to christen her and I knew then it must be bad and that they didn't think she was going to live. He asked me whether I had thought of any names and I said Joel if it's a boy, but we couldn't think of a girl's name. That's how Joel went on to the birth certificate." The mother tracked down the chaplain to provide a statement. "When I found him he knew straight away who I was. He told me that he could never forget me and Joella. I also went back to the hospital to try to find the nurses, but when I returned it was a car park. Today Mrs Farmer added: "The last few days have been quite weird. I am still in a state of shock. For so long I have fought for this and now I am gobsmacked. "I never thought of giving up. I knew that it had to be done and it didn't matter how many times I got refused I knew it had to be done. I am quite pigheaded about it." MRS Farmer, who also has a son Jarred, nine, by her factory worker husband Jason, 28, said: "She's just a normal little girl - she likes loud music, boys and shopping. There's nothing different about her at all. She's never been ribbed at school. She's just been accepted and always has been right from the beginning." Mrs Farmer will be dropping Joella's middle name of David from the birth certificate. The expert who helped end Joella's agonising eight-year battle said today that justice had finally been done. World renowned endocrinologist Professor Charles Brook, of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said it would have been a "disgrace" if the birth certificate had not been altered. "What I can't understand is why everyone got in such a tizz about this and why it's taken so long. It seems no one understood the nature of Joella's complaint," he said. "Joella had an embryological abnormality and was inappropriately assigned to the male sex when she was born and now she's been correctly assigned. It's taken the Registrar General a bit of time to catch up. There are others like Joella in our clinic and if we had been involved right at the beginning, she would never have been registered as a boy. The criterion used is what the doctor says at the time and what the dad registers. The unfortunate thing is if you get it wrong."

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