TV host’s girl
SKY News host Colin Brazier told yesterday how his daughter was forced to quit university after being ordered to choose between her studies or spending time with her dying mother.
Mr Brazier, 49, slated officials for issuing the ultimatum after his wife Joanna Roughton, 55, a mum-of-six, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Daughter Edith, 18, has halted her geology degree at Royal Holloway in Egham, Surrey, to be with her mother in what could be her final days.
Furious Mr Brazier said the university demanded Edith supply proof of her mum’s illness, then insisted she leave her halls of residence within days of telling them of her decision.
Writing in the Catholic Herald, Mr Brazier told of an outpouring of support after his wife’s prognosis.
He added: “The only sour note was struck by staff at Royal Holloway College. Our eldest is in the first year of a geology degree there. She enjoys the course and has been doing well.
Bravely
“She faced a difficult choice: Drop out and forfeit all the work she’s done, or be absent from her mother’s side during what may be the final few weeks of her life.
“Bravely, and without prompting, she has decided to halt her studies and start again in September.
“The college authorities were blunt to the point of insensitivity.
“They wanted to see proof of her mother’s illness and insisted that she leave her hall of residence room within a matter of days.”
Mr Brazier joined Sky News in 1997. His wife was TV news editor for Reuters news agency in Hong Kong and Singapore before becoming Sky News’s head of foreign news.
She gave up her career in 2002 to devote her time to their family.
She was diagnosed with third-stage breast cancer more than five years ago and has now been told it has returned with a terminal prognosis.
Mr Brazier has also had treatment for cancer, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, diagnosed in 2009.
He said that in contrast to Edith’s university, he has had great support from their younger children’s schools.
He wrote: “Further back along education’s evolutionary track, we have nothing but praise for the schools attended by our children and the pastoral care they have offered. Our grammar school brain-box daughter has been given a blue plastic card to place on her desk to indicate that she might be, well, a little blue.
“At the small school where our other children are pupils a senior member of staff offered to do the school run for me.
“For a hard-bitten journalist,