It's so important to be yourself when you're at work,
because you're spending
a third of your day, at least, at work.
Trying to live two lives –
that's hard.
That can take such a toll on you mentally.
Emotionally, it's draining.
I'm a mobile crane operator.
I suppose the most important thing I do is
lift heavy things up and move them
and then put them back down again.
But the job involves a lot of trust.
I have to trust people that I'm working with, and they have to trust me.
I came out –
I had the egg-crack moment, the light bulb moment –
I was in a very, very bad place, mentally.
And a thought popped into my head...
...the thought that I'd been hiding away for so long,
about not being in the right body.
I left the construction industry
because I decided that it was time for me to transition.
It was time for me to take those steps.
And I didn't feel that I could stay in construction,
because I didn't think I'd have the support that I'd need.
My perception at the time,
was that I wasn't going to be accepted.
I was too different.
I was too unusual.
Before I transitioned,
I worked on the Long Itchington site for HS2.
That's where I first met Allan Eardley.
We used to get on really, really well.
He's an old school crane guy.
The site had changed immensely
since I had left there, and I'd been avoiding it, honestly.
I didn't want to go back on there because so many people
I'd been working with before would have known me then,
and I didn't know what reaction I was going to get.
The first day that I walked into the site,
Allan walked over and he passed me a badge with my name on it.
It had Katrina on the badge.
Just from that,
is me thinking that I didn't have to go and sit through another induction.
I was the same person that had left.
Everybody that I've come across,
have just been friendly.
The way that you expect to be treated,
by anybody,
in your day to day life.
People have asked questions and they want to understand more
about what I'm doing, what I'm going through.
But it's never from a place of mistrust
or not liking me, it's wanting to know
more about what's going on.
Being able to be yourself
when you're working, you're not hiding anything away.
You are being you.
The best advice I could give to somebody
in a similar situation that I was in,
would be to reach out and find people that they can talk to.
Finding allies;
people that are going to accept you
no matter how you present.
Since I came out
and started working again on HS2, the level of support
and the help that I've received from everybody on the site,
everybody that I've worked with, have just made my experience
that little bit easier.
I felt accepted.
There was just a certain level of euphoria.
It's made me feel like I was worth it.