"I suppose all this is just compension for things I'll never have. I'll probably never get married - well, never kids and things like that - I'll never have a normal life now. 'Cause I really crave a lot people have got - like kids, family and all that. It's the simplest thing in the world, really. But even Miss McAuliffe can't have them." [mpeg: 2.6MB]

Site feedback

After launching this site I have received quite a few emails (now about one every other day). Apart from flattering comments about the design (maybe I learned something in graphic design class and three years in advertising after all), many have expressed their admiration and best wishes for Jackie, which I felt should be shared. If you'd like to add a comment, feel free to email me, and I'll put it up on the site. Be warned, I reply to all my mails (even if I get 200 a day), sometimes rather long-windedly (apologies to those below who I've bored to death).

Hello Gary,

I began to know about Jackie only recently after see her pic listed in the Lynn Conway's site and immediately I felt identified with her in the way she seems to be.. moreover because both we have a similar age and way of thinking.. and only I can wish to her all the best.

Gary, thank You for your Website.

All my best wishes for you.

-- Charlotte, Spain

Hi Jackie,

I've just come across your website and thought I liked to say hello and thank you for sharing some of your life with me and thousand of others! I watched Paddington Green and felt so many different emotions for you...

Admiration for your bravery, because you must be very brave not only to decide that you had to change your life/gender, but also to do it in the public eye.

Sadness that you or anyone has to put themselves through so much to achieve something that they are denied at birth.

Anger that you were bullied... I understand the fear and loneliness that stems from being bullied and these feelings never leave you, as I'm sure your aware. However, I think that the mild bullying that I endured made me the person I am today, and I know I'm a stronger person than the bully (a cousin of mine).

Anyway, I sincerely hope you are well and enjoying your life to the full, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

Take care and here's to a long and happy life!

-- Vicky, UK

Hi Jackie,

I would like to initially say thank you. I think you helped me find the courage that I had lacked for too many years. I always knew how I felt, but had chosen to find solace in the bottle and substance abuse, rather than be brave and face the world as Rachel.

I am glad to say that is all behind me now. I have been living and working as Rachel for nearly a year and could not be happier, especially when friends, colleagues and family all have commented that they now see and talk to a person who is a more complete and well balanced human being. That has to be a change for the better.

-- Rachel, UK

Hi Jackie,

I saw your television programme when I was going through a difficult divorce. Your courage impressed me and motivated me to survive. Thank you!

You deserve to be successful in life, you are the shining beacon in life, that people need to follow. Keep up the good work. Good luck for the future!

-- Alan, UK

I am a 38-year old (god, that still doesn't seem right!) transgendered woman living quietly in London and going about life fairly contendedly. I mention that last point only because when I set out on my 'transition' I must admit I really didn't expect to end up with so comfortable an existence.

Stories like Jackie's were unheard of back then. The public grasp of transsexuality was so 'tabloidsational' that any hopes I may of had of being able to live a life with dignity were very slim. But Paddington Green and Coronation Street and the odd documentary (such as the wonderful '40 minutes' piece featuring Fay Presto) have helped no end.

In fact, beyond the wider appeal that Jackie's story had, I'd like to thank her for helping my own mother feel easier about where I am today. My mother absolutely adored watching Jackie and she was able to see someone making a success of life and largely being treated with care and with respect by a usually self-serving media.

I wish I had Jackie's courage to stand up and offer myself as an example to people in general and to those starting out along this road in particular, lord knows I have been offered enough platforms. But my present employers do not know of my past and neither do my clients. As sorry as I am to admit it, I do hide from my past rather.

I am a bit of a chicken compared to Jackie. So I can but send her my congratulations, my admiration and most of all my thanks. I'd be grateful if you would, for what it is worth, pass that along.

-- Kim, UK

I first found your beautiful website about a year ago but I've only just seen your latest update and just wanted to wish you the best and much happiness for your future. Oh, and thank you for the "plug" for Press for Change.

Looking back, I think seeing Jackie in Paddington Green played a major part in my finally understanding and accepting my own transsexuality. That led to me seeking treatment for the condition I had attempted to suppress/deny for so many years. I have since successfully "transitioned" and am so happy to be my real self, at last.

-- Terri, UK

I stumbled on to your Jackie tribute page, and I must admit that I'm as impressed with her as you are, and I've never even heard of Paddington Green. From what I've seen and read on your site, I think she is awesome. I must confess that I read about 90% of the stuff on your site, and I definitely sympathize with how you feel about her. I agree totally......she's one of those women you just want to put your arms around, shower with presents, and tell her she'll never have to worry about anything again. :o) I suspect that you and I are not the only men that she's had that effect on. In fact, in the wake of Paddington Green, I'd be willing to bet that she has a lot of suitors waiting in the wings...

-- John, US

I'm writing to thank you for compiling the wonderful website about Jackie McAuliffe.

I came across your website while building a "TS Women's Successes" webpage in my website. I immediately added Jackie into that page.

The goal of the "success" page is to provide a gallery of photos and weblinks about the lives of postop transsexual women - an uplifting gallery that can be a source of hope and inspiration and role models for young TS girls who are now facing transition.

Jackie is a wonderful addition to the success webpage. Her story is a very compelling one. It is a real world story that many young girls can identify with - especially girls from the streets of our cities.

Thanks so much for sharing Jackie's story with so many others via the web.

-- Lynn Conway, US

I was very pleased to find your web page which is dedicated to jackie. When I finished watching the series with Jackie in I felt like I wanted her to do so well for herself. She is such an amazing person, to go through everything that she has been through and still be so nice! At the end of the series, I really felt like she deserved so much more, like a nice job, a new start and a nice home.

I'm not sure if you do get to speak to her yourself or email her, but if ever you do, I would be so grateful if you could tell her that I think she is absolutely wicked.

Thank you for making your wonderful website which is dedicted to a wonderful person.

-- Julie, UK

I hope you don't mind me contacting you but I stumbled across your wonderful tribute to Jackie McAuliffe on the internet, and after reading all that you had to say I felt compelled to write. I was captivated by the website you'd created and the passionate content within, your public display of affection for a truly remarkable woman certainly made a refreshing change from many of the sites I've visited.

I'd also like to say thanks for doing your best to educate the masses on a subject that's been so unfairly portrayed by the media in the past. I hope that you do keep your website online Gary, for at least as long as it takes transsexuals to be granted their legal freedom. The right to own your identity is one more thing that so many people take for granted, and a luxury that transsexuals such as Jackie and myself have never known. Take care Gary, and keep up the good work.

-- Gemma, UK

... let me say I enjoyed perusing your lovely website. I think it's a stunning tribute to Jackie, to whom my husband and I have become quite attached while watching BBC America's Paddington Green. I'm sorry that Jackie hasn't gotten in contact with you and seemed dismayed about the project. I hope she does view it someday--if only she knew the way she has touched others hearts, especially mine, in such a positive way, and that so many of us would do so much to make sure that she was on her feet in any way we possibly could, we could give back just a tiny bit of what she has shared. Perhaps she'll one day change her mind and see that her life was not under a rainbow, but that she IS the rainbow.

Finally, I wanted to suggest that you might consider posting a tribute page to Jackie from any email that you receive (hey, it's your website, who SAYS anything has to be posted that negative?). Perhaps seeing how she's moved so many thousands, if not millions, of people now all over the globe, she might be able to stand strong and not feel the need to move back to the street corner in Sussex... I myself come from an abusive and abandoned childhood--just knowing the strength I see in Jackie made me feel stronger knowing that there were so many of us out there that clawed our way from the mire to make decent lives for ourselves. It's just that so many of us didn't have the bravery, the true courage, that Jackie has shown by being on PGreen.

Good luck with your website and thank you for it from both my husband and myself.

-- E.H., USA

I was looking for Jackie's cd and ran across your site. You have done a beautiful job!

-- Jamie, Oregon

I like the site, very good!

-- Brian Jenner, Newspad.co.uk [a very nice site about the more regular inhabitants of Paddington Green]

I stumbled across your website for Jackie McAuliffe and it is a lovely site indeed. I like the color scheme and I like the individual graphic elements... It's enchanting that Jackie had a fan as talented and devoted as you. I have half a mind now to order her piano CD...

-- M.S., New York

I thought your website was very nicely done and I have added a link off the page promoting her CD. Amazon.co.uk too it off their list for a while but I see it is back again now. Feel free to link back to this page to offer people the chance to buy the CD, listen to the clip or see the animation.

-- John, USA

I enjoyed every episode of Paddington Green. And that's why I would like to have "Forgotten Dreams". Do you have any idea where I can get it? (Try Amazon.co.uk or HMV)

-- Bas, The Netherlands

The site looks so good, and you are such a great drawer!... It is one of the best I have ever seen (which indeed it is! - You really have put in a wonderful job. It makes mine look so amateur! I wish you'd write a website about me!!)

-- Janine Elliot., UK

Your website looks very interesting at a quick glance - I'll try to look in more detail once I've answered the 180 emails I've just returned to!

In brief Jackie will not be in the next run of PG. I last saw her at the end of August [2000] when she was in very good form and trying to continue her 'normal' life, off the streets and with an 'ordinary' job.

-- Jeremy Mills, Lion TV