Firestyle Magazine Issue 3 - Spring 2016 | Page 12

SPORT

A different kind of brave
I don’t want anyone
else to feel alone like
I did – transgender
firefighter tells
William Murphy.
Two minutes into my conversation
with Cheshire firefighter Nic Brennan
and he’s already advising me on
my new year’s gym routine. “You’ve
got to focus on different muscle
groups in each session and stick to a
set routine if you want to see results”,
he tells me. If anyone is living proof
of a good gym routine to build
muscle, it’s Nic.
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Nic felt out of place in his body
while growing up. Now he knows he
suffered from the anxiety disorder
Gender Dysphoria, a condition
where a person experiences
discomfort or distress because
there is a mismatch between their
biological sex and gender identity.
Nic was born female but from a
very early age actually identified
as male, resulting in being very
isolated, angry and uncomfortable
growing up, and continuing into
adulthood.
Transgender people have a higher
profile now than ever before. Actor
Eddie Redmayne was nominated
for an Oscar for portraying artist Lili
Elbe, the first person to ever undergo
gender reassignment, and the BBC
soap EastEnders have introduced
the character Kyle, played by a
transgender actor. The fire service
has its own transgender story to tell.
“Writing my own name and ticking
the female gender box felt so

wrong”, Nic says, recalling how he
signed up to become a firefighter
at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service
in 2001. “I didn’t know that I was
transgender at the time. I just knew
that I wasn’t who I was supposed to
be.”
Due to this inner conflict Nic found
himself isolated and frustrated
at work, which often resulted in
outbursts of anger. Others may
have seen him as the only female
firefighter posted at Stockton Heath
fire station. But to Nic, he too was
one of the male firefighters.
It was more than seven years after
he joined the service that Nic
learned what the word transgender
meant. “It was a lightbulb moment.
I had figured out the root of the
problem and knew there was
somewhere I fitted in. I remember
saying out loud for the first time ‘I am
transgender’ and thinking to myself
that this was the most momentous
moment of my life.”