FORMER Bohunt School pupil Steve Cook is now Sophie Cook and motivating people on how to conquer fear through her transgender experience.
Steve, who grew up in Liss, was in the first intake at the school in 1978, but these were miserable years for him.
Although he was rugby captain and played cricket, he was bullied and tried to commit suicide aged 12.
He knew from the age of seven there was something wrong with him and he had to carry this terrible burden through his young life.
Now 49, and Sophie, he told his three children he was transgender last summer, began taking female hormones, lost five stone and got hair extensions. Sophie is finally happy, for the first time. “My wife knew I was transgender when I met her but when our son was born disabled and we nearly lost him, I thought I couldn’t put my family through it.
“I took Sophie, put her in a box and buried her for 15 years of hell. Every day I thought about suicide. It was a horrible, lonely place to be.”
Steve, now separated from his wife with the couple still good friends, had been a jet engine technician in the RAF before becoming a photographer, but now Sophie aims to devote time to being a ‘transformational speaker’.
She is drawing on her lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria, depression, self harm and suicidal feelings to help people overcome fears and reach their potential.
“I never realised it was possible to be this happy,” she said.
Sophie’s Grab Life by the Balls show is at Edge of the Wedge, Portsmouth, at 8pm on January 19. Visit www.sophiecook.me.uk for more details.