THE loving mother of a tragic transsexual -- killed on a busy main road -- has blasted heartless bullies who made her daughter's life a misery.

Devastated mum Carole Greenall had to sit through the inquest this week and hear how her daughter Paula died after stepping out onto the A674 Wheelton by-pass last September.

She was just 24.

Carole blames a lot of Paula's problems, not on her medical condition - being born into the wrong body - but on the way people reacted to her.

"She turned to drugs and drink to try and shut out a cruel world," said Carole, who stood by her daughter who felt isolated, unaccepted and unloved.

Carole, aged 47, of Millbrook Close, Wheelton, said: "She wasn't just some useless druggy, she was just utterly miserable because of the way people treated her."

Born a boy, and christened Paul, the teenager realised he was different at the age of 14. After a trip to the family GP Carole took her son to London to see specialists, and eventually, just a year before his death, he underwent the final, full sex change operation.

But Carole said that Paula, who went to Chorley's Brinscall St John's junior school and Albany High School, was bullied constantly. Eventually Paula moved away to escape from people who treated her as some kind of freak.

"She just couldn't face life," said Carole. "They ruined all our lives. We all went through hell for 10 years because of what people did."

Carole added: "People don't realise she was born like that, and it is a medical condition. It isn't that they are crackers, it is a medical condition."

The mother-of-four said she had "tried everything" to get help for Paula, from the age of 14.

"Even the police were so concerned for her safety because she was being beaten up."

Carole said she was always there for her, though. "I stood by her from the word go," she said. "It was very hard. We supported her one hundred per cent."

And she had this message to other parents going through the same trauma: "I don't know what you can do except be there for them."

An inquest in Preston on Monday recorded an open verdict.

The inquest heard that Paula had said she was going to kill herself the day she died, but that she had said it on other occasions as "a cry for help".

Before her death Paula, who had one brother and two sisters, had been living with her partner Gemma Worthington, whom she had known for about 15 months, in Long Acre, Clayton Brook.

On the day of her death the couple had had an argument.

Ms Worthington was not at the hearing but gave a written statement. She said they had been drinking in Chorley town centre.

They fell out and pushed each other. Ms Worthington said she pushed Paula into a wall near the bus station, chipping her tooth.

The pair then caught the bus to Paula's mother's in Wheelton, arriving at about 6pm. But Paula was in a distressed state and left, after threatening to kill herself.

She and Ms Worthington were later seen by witnesses near the Wheelton by-pass roadway at its junction with the Dressers Arms pub.

It is not clear why, but Paula stepped into the road.

She was struck by a Land Rover Defender travelling towards Blackburn and suffered multiple injuries. She died later in Chorley Hospital. She was said to have been one and two thirds over the legal drink drive limit.

Coroner Howard McCann said there was still doubt about Paula's state of mind as the Land Rover approached, but said: "I'm not saying Paula has done anything deliberately to herself."

Paula's mother Mrs Greenall told the inquest: "She was in such a state that day, I'm just convinced she wobbled into the road. She just didn't know what she was doing."

Paula had been prescribed methadone for the past four years and Carole said she felt her daughter's dosage was too high -- having shot up from 30 milligrams a day to 130 milligrams