University asked my daughter for proof mum had terminal cancer
Sky presenter tells of family’s ordeal
HER mother has been fighting breast cancer for five years.
But when Edith Brazier learnt the illness had become terminal she knew she had to adjust her priorities.
The daughter of Sky TV news presenter Colin Brazier, Edith had just begun a geology degree with the Royal Holloway College – part of the University of London – and decided to temporarily set her studies aside to be with her mum and family.
However, she wasn’t prepared for the college’s insensitivity to her situation. Bosses ordered her to produce ‘ proof ’ that her mother was ill and told her she would have to move out of her student accommodation within a matter of days.
The 18-year-old’s treatment was revealed by her angry father in a column for the Catholic Herald. Mr Brazier wrote: ‘[Edith] 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.’
He added: ‘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. Perhaps it’s a reaction to all that talk of a higher education sector laid low by trigger warnings and safe spaces.’
Mr Brazier, 49, is married to former TV news editor Joanna Roughton, who first learned she had cancer more than five years ago and was recently told it was incurable. The news anchor wrote that he was touched by the kindness shown by the schools attended by their other five children following the diagnosis. This, he said, included one grammar school which has given a daughter a blue card to place on her desk to show she is feeling blue.
He added: ‘For a hard-bitten journalist ... this abundance of charity and tactful expressions of sympathy are little short of a revelation.’
Mrs Brazier was TV news editor for Reuters in Hong Kong and Singapore and became head of foreign news at Sky.
She halted her career in 2002 to devote more time to her family. Mr Brazier said his wife handled telling their children of her diagnosis ‘like the still centre of calm surrounded by swirling eddies of emotion’. Mr Brazier himself was diagnosed with a form of cancer, non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2009 and had radiotherapy after a small growth on his face was removed.
A Royal Holloway spokesman said: ‘We recognise that circumstances may mean a student needs to interrupt their studies and, when this happens, we always seek to be supportive and sensitive.
‘However, there are a number of steps we must follow to ensure that the reason for the break in studies is properly recorded. We always hope that the student will be able to resume their studies. By going through these steps, it means that, if the student wishes to resume their studies in the future, their return to university can be as seamless as possible.
‘We appreciate that the wording of documents and information which need to be completed may seem very formal, particularly, as in the case of Mr Brazier’s daughter, when the circumstances surrounding the interruption are already very distressing.
‘ We would like to take this opportunity to offer our apologies to the family for any additional distress the procedures required for interruption caused.’