Hayley Cropper

Hayley Cropper (Hayley Anne Cropper, née Patterson, previously Harold Patterson) is a fictional character, played by Julie Hesmondhalgh in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

Hayley forms a strong relationship with cafe owner Roy Cropper, but he rejects her when she tells him she was originally a man. However he later comes to accept her as she is, and they set up house together, and have a blessing ceremony conducted by a vicar. This event is thought to have influenced public opinion in favour of greater acceptance of trans people, leading up to the Gender Recognition Act. Subsequently Hayley receives her gender recognition certificate, and she and Roy are married.

In 2013 she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Unwilling to reach the point where she is no longer really herself as a result of increasingly powerful medication, she decides on suicide, and dies in January 2014 with Roy by her side.

The portrayal of Hayley as a trans woman has generally been approved of by the trans community (despite initial misgivings that a trans woman was not chosen for this part), and Press for Change acted for a while as advisors to the series.