The Cheshire Woman Award Committee is delighted to welcome Rachel as our guest for the first time. It has become somewhat of a tradition for presenters from BBC North West to join us at the annual awards ceremony. We are extremely grateful for their support and delighted that 2022 is Rachel’s turn after the somewhat enforced break during the past 3 years!

Rachel was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Her mum worked full time looking after five children, and her dad was a journalist. Rachel has always had a love of radio and after studying history and politics at Trinity College, Dublin, she went on to complete a Broadcast Journalism Diploma at Cardiff University.

Her first job was at BBC Radio Suffolk and she has worked for the BBC ever since, with a stint at BBC Radio Bristol before moving to Radio 5 Live in 2003. Rachel has hosted the Breakfast show since 2010 for which she and her co-host won a Gold Aria award in 2018. She has travelled widely for the network, broadcasting from Rome, Dublin, Kenya, New Zealand and South Africa…. and her spare bedroom earlier this year when she had Covid!

Rachel moved to Cheshire in 2011 when the BBC relocated to Salford and lives surrounded by countryside with her husband, four children, a cat and a dog. As a very busy working mother, Rachel is perfectly placed to appreciate the achievements of the remarkable women here today. When she’s not working, Rachel can mostly be found walking through the fields near her home, in the local pub, or at Sale Sharks rugby club.

My Breakfast job is so varied. In the past few months I’ve challenged Government Ministers about imminent education cuts – set to be worst in Cheshire; travelled to Antigua as I followed a group of working mums as they became to oldest to ever row across an ocean; highlighted the plight of children trapped in an inadequate underfunded care system; featured a wonderful scheme in Cheshire to help bereaved women fill the void left by their husbands death by learning new skills in the Men’s Shed; and I spent a month looking at a funding crisis in the Hospice movement. No two days are the same and it is a privilege to meet so many interesting people.

I’m very honoured to be the holder of two Royal Television Society Reporter of the Year Awards for my previous work with BBC North West Tonight. I was also named the Consumer Affairs Correspondent of the year by Trading Standards bodies, for my work exposing conmen and frauds. My career began working for the Liverpool Echo group before becoming a video-journalist and later joining BBC Radio Merseyside. One of my first ever stories as a journalist was to warn parents of a peril they hadn’t yet heard of – The Internet. An indication of how long I’ve been in this game!

I generally can’t believe my luck at having such a cracking job and lovely family. The BBC Breakfast team are officially the nicest bunch in national television news. In my spare time I pick Lego and dirty clothes up off the floor, play the occasional board game, cycle to Parkgate and drink wine.

When Bernard Braden went back to Canada in 1973 Esther became the producer/presenter of the consumer programme “That’s Life!” which ran for 21 year and drew audiences of over 18 million. It achieved fame (and notoriety) for its talking dogs, Jobsworth Awards and also campaigns on behalf of abused children, organ transplants, safe playgrounds, hospital patients and to provide justice for consumers. She also created the documentary series “The Big Time” which discovered singer Sheena Easton. She invented the Children of Courage segment of Children in Need, also “Hearts of Gold” which ran for seven years honouring unsung heroes and heroines.

For seven years she presented her daily talk show “Esther” on BBC2, and “That’s Esther” on ITV (with co-presenters Lara Masters and Heather Mills). She has made a number of pioneering programmes on child birth, mental health, drug abuse and child abuse (in the campaigning series of programmes “Childwatch”). In 1986 she invented the concept of ChildLine (the children’s helpline which was launched on “Childwatch”) which she then chaired for twenty years. She is currently President of ChildLine, is a trained volunteer counsellor and is a Trustee of the NSPCC since its merger with ChildLine in 2005. She is a Patron of a number of other charities including the Red Balloon to recover bullied children. She is President of the Association of Young People with ME, which she helped to found.

She has received a number of awards including the OBE for services to broadcasting and the CBE for services to children. She received the Royal Television Society’s Special Judges’ Award for Journalism and was received into their Hall of Fame. In addition she received the Dimbleby award from BAFTA (the first woman to receive it), the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television and the Snowdon award for services to disabled people. She has 5 honorary doctorates and has been made an honorary Fellow of Somerville College. She has appeared in “Strictly Come Dancing” for the BBC and “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” for ITV. Recently she stood at the 2010 General Election as an Independent candidate for Luton South.

In 2011 she published her book “Running Out of Tears” (The Robson Press) to celebrate ChildLine’s 25th Anniversary.

Some of Brigit’s recent theatre roles in the North West include: Leontina in The Triumph Of Love for the Royal Exchange, Manchester; Gertrude in Hamlet for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Kate Keller in All My Sons; Esme Allen in Amy’s View for the Library Theatre, Manchester; Beatrice Harrison in The Cello And The Nightingale at Theatre Royal, York; Queen Elizabeth II and Coral Brown in Single Spies for the West Yorkshire Playhouse; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest for The Royal Exchange, Manchester; Little Murders and The Comedy of Errors for The Royal Exchange, Manchester; The Price and Tom and Viv for the Library Theatre, Manchester; Several national tours including The Maintenance Man, You Must Be The Husband and My Fat Friend.

On television Brigit is probably best known as Thelma from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads for the B.B.C. Her extensive television work covers five series playing Francine Pratt in Playing the Field for Tiger Aspect; two series of Tom, Dick and Harriet for Thames Television; two series of The Practice for Granada Television; two series of Sharon and Elsie for the B.B.C. But her favourite role was in Playing the Field opposite the wonderful Ricky Tomlinson. Brigit played his wife and says that she was such a horrid person to play but great fun. She played a small role in Coronation Street as Ken Barlow’s date Babs Fanshawe, which she says was fun.

Brigit has also played Thelma in a feature film of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads for E.M.I.; Stanley’s Vision a Channel 4 film and Kay Mellor’s film Fanny and Elvis. Brigit also works extensively in radio.

Family is very important to Brigit and she’s most proud of her two children. Her son Ben is an accomplished engineer and her daughter Zoe is writing a screenplay as well as a play with roles for them both. Brigit and Zoe have performed together before in a Studio production at The National.

Away from news Louise has presented five series of Missing Live, her own day-time series, commended in Parliament for its work re-uniting families. She has also presented five series of Real Rescues on BBC One. She is an ambassador for the BBC’s Share Take Care campaign to improve internet safety for parents and children.

In 2009 Louise was one of 12 celebrities who took part in the BBC’s “Around the World in 80 Days”. She travelled from Mongolia to Los Angeles with BBC Breakfast co-presenter Bill Turnbull to raise money for Children in Need.

She studied Spanish at St Andrews University and then went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Radio Journalism at the London College of Printing.

She is married with two daughters and lives in Cheshire.