The 81 years old Britain's oldest transsexual

A former RAF navigator has become the Britain's oldest  person to have sex change surgery after NHS-funded operations.

Ruth Rose, 81, of Newhaven, East Sussex, underwent the final stage of her gender realignment surgery in July after she started living as a woman four years ago.

Ms Rose, who had been James - a father of three and grandfather of four, said she had always known she was living in the wrong body, and had started dressing up in secret while at school.

When she married in 1961, Ms Rose felt she could not tell her wife about her feelings, hoping instead that they would go away.

The couple were married for 42 years and had three children, but after they divorced amicably 11 years ago, Ms Rose began to be more open about living as a woman - having previously been living as a man at home, but dressing up to see friends.

She started hormone therapy four years ago when she stopped attending events as a man, and decided to undergo the dramatic surgery after coming through an unrelated operation for a hip and knee replacement. 

'My doctor had said I should have the gender ­transformation operation but I thought I was too old. I thought I had left it too late. But the surgeons wouldn’t have done it if they didn’t think I could go through with it,' the charity worker told the Sunday People.

Ms Rose, an activist and public speaker for charities like Age UK, says she is still close to her ex-wife, and says although her family tolerated her decision to live as a woman, they were shocked by the surgery.

She is the oldest in Britain to have the surgery, with her treatments and the operation costing the NHS £4,000.