Mum’s left me a letter to read in private.. that will be the moment I’ll know she’s really gone
haven’t all been bleak for Carol. Though she had to postpone her plans to fly single-handedly around the world because of her mother’s illness, she’s still determined to undertake the challenge. And she proved a hit as one of the contestants on the last series of I’m A Celebrity... “I absolutely loved doing the show,” she says. One of three siblings, Carol was raised in North Wales almost single-handedly by Jean who had split from Carol’s dad, Tony Vorderman, when she was a tot. Carol’s mum encouraged her daughter to study hard at school and to apply to Cambridge University, where she got an engineering degree. “I went through a very turbulent childhood,” says Carol. “We were terrifically poor, then she remarried and kept leaving my stepfather and we kept going from one town to another. It was quite unstable, but mum was always there. She was the constant in my life.
“That flipped in my early 20s. She’d left my step-father, when she was 53. She was living in a room in a student house – she had nothing – and everything I had was in the boot of my old rusty Datsun. And I said: ‘We have to do something about this!’ ”
The something was the getting the job, aged 21, as the maths whizz on Channel 4’s Countdown, where she solved maths puzzles for the nation from 1982 until 2008.
After Countdown, Carol landed roles, ranging from Tomorrow’s World to Loose Women. Alongside her TV appearances, twice-divorced Carol juggled her professional life with raising daughter Katie, now 25 and studying for a PhD, and son Cameron, 20, who still lives with his mum in Bristol.
But the Pride of Britain Awards, which she has hosted since 1999, holds a special place in Carol’s heart. Which is why, despite her personal heartache, she was thrilled to launch this year’s nominations drive.
Three Minis fitted with the Pride of Britain livery yesterday started a 1,000mile tour around the nation, in search of heroes, great and small.
The awards take place at London’s Grosvenor House and will be attended by top stars and screened on ITV in November. And in a year which has seen terror attacks in London and Manchester as well as the Grenfell tower fire in West London, Carol says the awards are specially important. “We need the Pride of Britain awards more than ever. I think the flavour will be different this year. We’re in more serious times.
“There’s ever more need for hope now. The stories that have come out of the tragedies, particularly in Manchester and Grenfell, have been extraordinary.
“Those are the kind of stories we should be encouraging and those are the stories we want – big and small.”