One of the very few benefits to my medical condition is that I can easily pass as an anatomical female. As previously mentioned, by the time I reached my mid-teens, I was physically indistinguishable from any other teenaged girl, even – in some cases – under the most intimate of circumstances.

Consequently, I've always been free to go lingerie shopping as a woman, as quite literally, nobody can tell the difference. This has often stood to my advantage, especially during my student years.

Back in art school, I worked Friday afternoons at a second hand place called The Good Samaritan. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement: they received much-needed volunteer assistance, while I got first choice of any new items that came in. Sometimes, it was like winning the lottery - I'd occasionally come across a brand new set of underwear for a fraction of the normal retail price.

At the time, matching bras and panties were easy enough to come by, but good-quality stockings and garter-belts were far more rare. I was always on the lookout for the genuine article, the kind with metal connectors at the end of the suspenders (modern-day garter-belts are designed more for decoration than practical use – although they look pretty, they tend to fall apart after a few weeks). I asked my boss – Sonia Harrison by name – if they ever had heavy-duty English-style garters in stock. She told me they were fairly rare these days, but something always came in every now and then. By that time I'd become friends with all of the regular staff, and they agreed to keep an eye out for me.

About a month later, I dropped in to help sort out the recent donations, and Sonia told me that a matching set had turned up a few days before. They'd put it aside for me, knowing I'd be in that afternoon. When she took me into the back room to show me, I was pleasantly surprised (delighted, actually) by what they'd found.

It was a brand-new Signature selection from Whispers in Lace, complete with matching garter belt and several pairs of French heels. The underwear was alabaster white and the hosiery was black, dark brown and tan. It was unbelievably beautiful and had obviously never been worn – I estimated I was looking at over $200 worth of lingerie.

When I asked Sonia how much they wanted for it, she said I could have the entire set for free – it was her way of showing appreciation for the hours I put in every week. She had one condition, however: everyone was dying to see how I'd look in suspender stockings, so I had to model them for the entire staff. Sonia had even picked out a pair of black stilettos to go with the set (again, totally free of charge).

After we closed the store for lunch, I disappeared into the change room while everyone settled down to enjoy the show. There were a number of older men working in the store that day, but I didn't mind; we were all friends and they were old enough to be my grandfather (although I'm not sure they would have enjoyed the parade quite so much had they known I wasn't exactly a girl). When I emerged from the change room, everybody started whistling like an old-fashioned burlesque show. It was a fun, light-hearted affair with a lot of faux lechery from the male staff. I strutted around with hands on my hips for a while, posing in my knickers and blowing kisses at the "audience."

The panties and garter belt were almost a perfect fit, but the bra was slightly oversized (I was only an A-cup at the time). Sonia said they could probably adjust it with the sewing machine, so she stepped up and measured me right there on the main floor of the show room. I think that was the best part, I heard the "crowd" trading chuckles and whispers as Sonia slipped the measuring tape around my breasts (no – the bra stayed on throughout the entire episode).

I repeated this performance several times during my three years at Good Samaritan. At one point, Sonia asked me if I would model my underwear at a local fund-raiser – a request I was perfectly willing to grant, considering how generous they'd been with me. I appeared with several other young volunteers, including Sonia's grand-daughter, modeling outfits contributed by nearby businesses. The event was a runaway success, earning more than $5000 in donations (not bad for a downtown opportunity shop).

To this day, none of them are aware that their star attraction was actually a boy.