There’s also a football referee, a Harry Potter superfan and a guy so good-looking his date can’t concentrate.
A pansexual and a transgender woman will be amongst the couples looking to strike up a connection on a special Valentine’s Eve special of First Dates Ireland on Tuesday night.
19-year-old pansexual (a person capable of a sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards other people regardless of their sex or gender identity) Kyle, from Cork, will meet Laylah, a transgender woman, and both will share their experiences on what is, for both of them, their first ever blind date.
Kyle will also open up to Laylah and to viewers about battling testicular cancer at just 17 years old.
“I’m lucky to be alive,” Kyle says, as he opens up about being diagnosed with testicular cancer on the week of his 17th birthday, finding out it had spread to his abdomen and lungs and how he was told he wouldn’t be alive today had he waited a further three months for treatment.
Meanwhile, Laylah tells viewers about the challenges she meets on a daily basis in Ireland.
Clip via RTÉ2
“I definitely have more challenges than probably your average person,” she says.
“People on the street staring and shouting. There’s a lot of people who, I think, hate me and it’s very weird to have someone hate you for no reason.”
Asked what would be the one thing she would change about her life if she could, she replies: “I’d change society. I know a lot of people would expect me to say that I’d change the fact that I was born male but I think the problem doesn’t start with you as an individual, I think everyone has the right to be who they are but I would change the way people look at me.”
Apart from Kyle and Laylah, the Valentine’s Eve special of First Dates will also feature Harry Potter superfan Heywood (23) from Kildare, amateur football referee Dave (49) and Kerrie (21) from Clonee, who gets so distracted by the good looks of Wexford man Aaron (24) that she finds it hard to concentrate.
First Dates Ireland airs on RTÉ2 at 9.30pm.
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