"I walked into the Qantas airport lounge in my female uniform and there was a bunch of guys there in suits ... and this group of men started applauding," recalls McGregor, outgoing group captain in the Royal Australian Air Force. Catherine McGregor at the National Press Club in April 2015. Credit:Karleen Minney It was February 2014 and the ABC's Australian Story had just aired McGregor's moving account of transitioning from Malcolm – known to many as "a pretty blokey bloke" – to Catherine. The former Army Lieutenant Colonel, political adviser-turned-correspondent and cricket writer had been convinced that coming out would be a "complete disaster". On the eve of Australia Day, 2012, she contemplated suicide rather than transitioning to womanhood. "[The men] were walking over and hugging me and touching me on the shoulder and saying 'Good on you love, fantastic,'" McGregor says. "I'm crying now. Nothing had prepared me for that."

The 59-year-old, who counts former prime minister Tony Abbott as a friend, says she has had "in many ways a very privileged transition". There is an extraordinary bliss in finally being herself. Catherine McGregor with Indian batting master Rahul Dravid in July 2014. But it has also exacted an emotional toll, including the loss of an "incredibly happy" marriage. And as a high-profile transgender woman, she has been the target of "hair-raising" vilification online. "There is a lot of suffering in our community and if someone as high-profile and essentially privileged as I am in trans[gender] terms can just be torn to shreds and ridiculed and treated with disdain, god knows what's going on for [others]," McGregor says. Regardless of whether she is named Australian of the Year on Monday – she has already taken out the Queensland title – McGregor is determined "make this a year in which, if I achieve anything, it is to show just the common humanity of transgendered people to the rest of Australia". She indicated her intention to leave the RAAF on December 27.

She says high-profile transgender women including US reality TV star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, the subject of some criticism within the transgender community, have been important because "visibility matters". Likewise, the new film The Danish Girl, aimed at a mainstream audience, captures the anguish of grappling with the "do or die" decision to transition to man or womanhood. It was Indian batting master Rahul Dravid​, about whom McGregor wrote in her book An Indian Summer of Cricket and who has been a "beacon" in times of uncertainty, who saw her future with clarity. Dravid said people would be drawn to McGregor's "great courage", "not just people with gender issues but anyone struggling with an issue in their own life". McGregor says "there can't be a greater waste of a human life than dying without ever letting the people you love see who you really are".

"That's what I think Dravid could see that I couldn't. This wasn't just a trans story; this was a story about being willing to risk everything to be who you really are," she says. "That's a microcosm of every human journey. That's why I think boys in suits choke up over Australian Story." Lifeline 13 11 14