TV legend admits she felt like an emotional punchbag | UK News

Iconic Blue Peter presenter Sarah Greene has admitted she struggled following a sequence of personal tragedies. The 68-year-old tv presenter is at present very a lot in love and having fun with a enormous profession resurgence thanks to her position internet hosting the hit BBC recreation show The Finish Line alongside Roman Kemp. The quick-fire quiz has proved such a success since its launch two years in the past that it’s been granted a week of Christmas specials this 12 months, which kick off on December 15.

However, this all comes after a tough period in her life in which she suffered the deaths of the three people closest to her. Speaking completely to Express.co.uk she said: “I had possibly the worst three to four years of my life, losing my mum and then my dad and then my husband.” Her beloved mom, actress Marjie Lawrence, died in 2010 aged 78 of ovarian cancer. Her father, TV DIY skilled Harry Greene, collapsed and died in 2013, at the age of 89, after returning from a vacation with Sarah and her husband, fellow TV presenter and businessman Mike Smith.

That can be enough disappointment for most people to endure in a short period, but just 17 months later, Smith, to whom Sarah had been married for 25 years since 1989, died aged 59 from problems following major coronary heart surgical procedure.

“It’s unreal, it’s a strange, surreal, visceral, hurting, sadness, it’s all of those things,” she remembers of the grief she felt.“I don’t speak for everybody. I can only speak from my own experience on this. But I felt like an emotional punching bag. It almost felt like when a boxer gets punched, falls down, gets up and spins, and then falls back over again,” she confesses.

Sarah’s mom, who famously spoke the first ever phrases uttered on ITV, died just three weeks after studying she had ovarian cancer, having waited 10 months for a diagnosis, a deadly delay that compounded Sarah’s grief.

“She was sent away [by her GP] with thoughts that she had irritable bowel syndrome or something multi-factorial – that umbrella term,” she remembers. “It got to the stage where I took her to an appointment to see a heart specialist, and he was the only one who examined her properly. He took me aside and said, ‘Your mother needs to go to the hospital and see a cancer specialist’.

“Within 24 hours, doctors had diagnosed her with a large mass that was ovarian and malignant. If we had known the five most common symptoms… if her GP had known them, there is a chance that mum would still be with us today. She would have certainly had another 10 years with us.”

Sarah discovered strength by forming a close affiliation with Target Ovarian Cancer, a charity working to discover new remedies and present help for those affected by the disease. It also develops early diagnosis toolkits for healthcare professionals to spot the symptoms of cancer. “I’m very happy to say that the reach of Target Ovarian Cancer’s online training for GPs in 2010 was 26% and is now 51%,” she says proudly.

“It’s nowhere near 100% and I know that GPs are under so much pressure. But awareness is so important. Eleven women a day are dying of ovarian cancer. If we can detect this early, 95% of those will survive. It is no longer a silent killer, but awareness has to be raised,” she said.

Target Ovarian Cancer is one of the charities supported in this year’s Big Give’s Christmas Challenge, an online match-funding campaign that doubles donations and is now the UK’s biggest fundraiser for good causes. It runs until December 9 and donations can be made right here.