An 85-year-old trans woman wants to be a figurehead for the trans community.

Ruth Rose always knew she was a woman since the age of nine during World War Two but she didn’t have the medical change until she was 81 becoming the oldest person in the UK to undergo gender confirmation surgery.

And during an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live In Short, she spoke about her transition and wants to show the world that trans people are “not freaks”.

She said: “I was very surprised to be given the chance for a medical transition, and naturally took it.

“I was 81 years old, and I believe 81 is the oldest it’s ever been done for somebody. I was about nine, it was during the war.

“I was an evacuee at the time, and somehow or other this strange feeling but obviously at that time these sort of things were never spoken about so I was unaware of really what it was except in this feeling that I wanted to be a girl, and dress in girl’s things, and be very secretive about it, I had to be, and it’s a strong feeling that came over me and stayed with me although I thought it would go away, it never did.

“I like to be an example, I like to show the world that people who have transitioned from male to female, or female to male, are not freaks.

“That they can have a role in society, and don’t have to, in any way go on about whether they’re discriminated against or not or whatever it is; they have a role in society like anybody else.”

Watch her interview below: