How Noel became Noeleena, the story of the 60-year-old married builder who had gender reassignment surgery, is at heart about how important it is to assert our true identity.
Noel had always known he was different, a girl born in a boy's body. But as a child it would not have been wise to go public. 
As Noeleena said this week: "Back then in 1958 I would have been thrown in Lake Alice if I said anything, and I knew no one would know what I was talking about." By all accounts, when Noeleena returned home to Waimate nobody batted an eyelid and she has taken another step in her new life, happy at last to be acknowledged as a woman.
However, it is worth noting that though many will applaud Noeleena's forthrightness and support her decision, there are many in the transgender community who change their name and live as a woman (or a man) without surgery.
Gender reassignment surgery is a serious and expensive step to take. Many transgender people, whether those in transition from male to female like Noeleena, or female to male, either cannot have surgery for financial or health reasons, or don't see surgery as the path they need to take.
Yet when a man lives as a woman or vice versa, issues crystallise that the rest of society rarely has to face. There are questions like, what do you put under "sex" on a passport? Should I change my details on my driver's licence? Can I change the details on my birth certificate?
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