Ruth

Ruth is a former RAF navigator, mechanical engineer and financial consultant who spent most of her life living as James. In 2014, she became the oldest person in Britain to have undergone gender reassignment surgery. From a young age Ruth had known that she was female and lived as a woman in private for many years, waiting until retirement to come out in public as a woman.

Working around the clock to promote elderly and transgender rights, Ruth has no intention of slowing down despite being in her 80’s. She spends a lot of her time doing voluntary for older people, going to meetings, speaking at conferences, occasionally broadcasting on radio locally and nationally, she is also a regular platform speaker at national conferences on ageing.

Ruth was among a group of members of Our Rights Our Voices who were trained as Human Rights Ambassadors to spread the knowledge of Human Rights to older people countrywide.  They produced a toolkit which included a Human Rights wheel which was written and designed by Ruth.

Other activities are related to Trans awareness and rights projects in Brighton and nationally.