George Ward/Cherry Valentine (1993-2022)

George Ward was a mental health nurse and drag queen, known by the stage name Cherry Valentine. George took part in RuPaul’s Drag Race UK as well as a BBC documentary, Cherry Valentine: Gypsy Queen and Proud, a documentary which explores his experiences as someone who is queer and from a Traveller community.

Whilst studying mental health nursing at the University of Cumbria, George was introduced to the drag scene in Manchester and after experimenting with drag at home, performed as Cherry Valentine on a regular basis. He qualified as a mental health nurse in 2015 and whilst working as a drag performer, he was also working in a children’s psychiatric intensive care unit and with adults diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. In an interview, Ward said, "Drag is my passion and my dream but I do love being a nurse - it's something I'll always do."

A few years later, they left their job as a mental health nurse to take part in the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, George went back to work as a nurse, working on the frontline.

George was genderfluid and queer and used ‘he’ and ‘they’ pronouns. He was originally from Darlington and part of an English Traveller community. George has previously spoken about how they felt “very lonely” growing up as a queer person in the Traveller community and how they would hide their Traveller heritage in the LGBT+ community out of fear of receiving “hate or backlash”.