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A blind transgender woman says losing both her dad and her sight made her realise that she was living in the wrong body.

In 2011 Sarah Stephenson-Hunter lost her sight when she hit a cupboard door at home and "took out her eye".

Just four months earlier her dad had died of lung and spinal cancer at the age of 73.

She says that the trauma of this period made her realise that "life is short" and she could no longer suppress the feeling she was born the wrong sex.

The Beeston 46-year-old said: "I realised there was another aspect [of me] that I had been trying to keep a lid on for too long – the emotional and internal pressure was tearing me apart.

"Every day you are reminded of what you are not and what you may never be.

"The sense of not belonging in your body and the difference between what you have got in your head as who you are and what your body is – it's a form of torture.

"It was like a massive tidal wave was chasing me down and I decided to let it catch me and see what happened.

(Image: shawn Ryan)

"It was very hard to begin with, I'm not going to lie. But if I did not do it I would not have been there six months later.

"It just felt right, as painful as it has been. It feels like an immense pressure has been lifted off my shoulders.

"Why did I not do it twenty years earlier when I could see a bit more?"

At seven she developed cataracts and her vision grew gradually worse with only one eye still working in part.

However she went completely blind when she hit a kitchen cupboard which punctured her working eyeball and damaged it permanently.

Afterwards she would continue to have "phantom visions" of things she could previously see - such as her front room - for months.

Speaking about this experience, she said: "I knew I would lose all my sight at some point but I did not expect it to be in such a catastrophic way.

"In the midst of my grief and shock, all the questions and confusion about my identity came bursting to the surface – I simply couldn't fight them anymore."

Sarah had started experimenting with wearing her mum and sister's clothes at the age of 11.

However growing up in a small town in the North East in the 70s and 80s, where people used homophobic terms freely, she did not know what the word trans even meant - let alone talk about it.

While studying at Trent University she became a Christian and went on to marry a woman (who she would later divorce) and have three children with her.

However there was always a sense that something was wrong.

According to national LGBT+ charity Stonewall, there is still a lot of misconception about trans people – who face "huge levels of abuse" and they are much more likely to attempt suicide.

(Image: shawn Ryan)

It says that the word trans is "an umbrella term to describe people whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth".

Gender, according to the charity, is cultural and comes with lots of ideas about personality and social roles, whilst sex is physical.

It estimates around one percent of the population is trans.

Sarah underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2016.

"It was the last piece of the jigsaw. You don't wake up and straight away a choir of angels starts singing - but it is that amazing sense of peace."

Since coming out as trans she has met a new wife and continues to work as a disability advisor for the University of Nottingham.

Sarah now wants to raise awareness of transgender issues and was even named Stonewall's East Midlands Role Model of the Year last month after running a half-marathon for them, speaking to students at Vision West Nottinghamshire College and working as a Community Role Model for Nottinghamshire Police.

She added: "I would say to other trans people, take your time.

"Find someone to talk to – if you do not have to transition then do not rush in to it, it is not glamorous.

"What you do get is a great sense of being at peace. You can live life without fear, it's almost like a new life."