It's the job she was born to do. But as India Willoughby returns to the world of TV news she will for the first time be doing so as the person she was always meant to be.

For in the six years since she quit her job at ITV Border's Lookaround news show, the 51-year-old has transformed her life – consigning her previous life as Jonathan to history after undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

The former ITV Lookaround journalist has become the UK's first transgender TV reporter.

The appointment is the latest milestone in a remarkable journey.

Ironically, it was as she read a bulletin for Lookaround in 2010 that India finally realised she could not continue living a lie – as a woman born into a man's body.

Recalling that moment, she said: “I caught sight of my reflection in a camera lens – and saw myself , well turned-out, in a sharp suit, and looking confident and I though: 'This is terrible. This is what people see and it's not the real me.”

Determined to begin her transformation, India resigned from her job and, after taking a PR job in Newcastle, she began a double life: living as India during the week but becoming Jonanthan again in Carlisle at weekends as she returned to the city to see her son.

That continued for five years – until India's decision to have gender reassignment surgery last year marked the final step in her transition.

“It reached the stage where I was about to go in for surgery and I had to tell my family,” said India. “It wasn't an easy thing to do, but they were great. I'd been able to live two parallel lives but you can't do that indefinitely.”

India said that deep down she always knew her male persona was wrong.

“This was always what I wanted,” she said. “From my earliest memories, I knew that I didn't fit the skin I was in.”

After her transition, India made her next big decision: to go public. She could have opted for a quiet life, continuing to work in PR, safely hidden from public view. So why publicly reveal her life story?

“I felt it was necessary,” replied India, a divorcee who has a son.

“I'm delighted to be back as a television reporter, doing the job I always loved. I didn't think I'd ever be able to do this. If you do this job you can't be invisible. And hopefully it will show the world that people like me are just normal human beings.

“There's nothing weird, or unusual about us.”

She has no desire to become a campaigner on transgender issues, but India recognises that not all people who confront it as she has have an easy time. “I just want to get on with my life as a normal human being.

“But if that can help people in some way, purely because I am in the public eye, then that's a good thing. I shouldn't have to hide in the shadows. I'm happy that I can tell people who I really am.

“But my ideal situation would be that it's just not an issue; that it just gets so boring that people say: 'So what?' It shouldn't be a big deal.

“I feel great and it was the best decision I made in my life. I don't feel any awkwardness, or embarrassment about it whatsoever. With most people I meet it doesn't even come up. If they don't know I don't feel I have to volunteer it.

“If it does crop up I conversation, I'm open about it.

In her own moving account of her transition, India wrote movingly of how in her mind she had staged a funeral for Jonathan. A bitter-sweet but necessary farewell to the young man she'd lived as for so many years.

Her new job with ITV News Tyne Tees – which may include reporting stints in Carlisle – will put her back in the limelight – as India Willoughby, the woman she was meant to be. “ITV have been absolutely brilliant,” she said.

“The job has changed, and there's a lot more technology, but the craft of reporting hasn't changed, of course. It's good to be back.”

Anybody who believes that they have gender dysphoria – the word used to describe being born with the wrong gender – should be referred to a Gender Identity Clinic for support, treatment and assessment.