Â鶹Éç

Ruth Rose knew she was a female during World War 2, from the age of nine, but she didn't have a medical sex change until the age of 81.

She's now 85, and says her female friends, who she swims in the sea with every morning at 7am, regard her as "never having been a man".

Ruth says she wants to be a figurehead for transgender people and show the world that people who have gender reassignment surgery "are not freaks".

Here, Ruth speaks to Josephine, who had gender reassignment surgery at 65, and to Caroline Abrahams, Director of the charity Age UK, which has recently issued a fact sheet to older people about transgender issues.