Pride of Britain gives me hope
the time so we have to protect the good things. I made the most of my years with my mum and I’m going to make the most of my years with my children.”
She believes the nation will take extra special comfort from this year’s awards.
Carol added: “We should always remind ourselves of the good. Pride of Britain is needed most years, but this year… these people give you hope.”
It was Jean who helped to catapult Carol to fame aged 21, when she forged her Cambridge engineering graduate daughter’s signature on an application for Countdown. The move launched a 26-year career on the Channel 4 show and made Carol one of TV’s biggest stars.
Jean raised her family in north Wales as a single mother, and they had very little money. When Carol found success, she employed her mum, and remained by her side until the very end.
Carol, a pilot and honorary RAF Group Captain, was in Iceland in rehearsals for a round-the-world solo flight – bidding to become the ninth woman in history to complete the feat – when Jean became unwell in March. She returned home to Bristol.
She said: “A few days later, she was crying with pain, I said I was taking her to hospital. In 24 hours we had the diagnosis she had multiple tumours.
“She said she didn’t want any treatment. She didn’t want to go through that. She was on morphine from that moment. They said it was a number of months.”
Jean had battled kidney cancer and melanoma before and the star says they had had discussions about the end, which brought her to an acceptance.
Carol says they had said everything they needed to. Even so, Jean left her a letter to read.
She couldn’t bring herself to do so. Today, she finally has, but insists that although it was a comfort, it wasn’t necessary. She said: “You know what you know. No one else has to qualify it.
“You know if you loved someone, you know if someone loves you. You just know. If you trust that, you don’t need more evidence. I knew what my mum thought of me because we lived it.”
Carol had put her round-the-world mission on hold but now her attention is turning to it again.
She has also begun a relationship with builder Cas Neill, 49, a family friend. “He has been a good support,” she said.
But mainly, she takes her cue from the exceptional people she has known, like her mum, and all those she meets through the Pride of Britain Awards. Particularly her late friend Piers, who was a winner in 2006.
Carol said: “When they gave Piers a number of months to live, he wrote an email and it was just very funny... you know, ‘I’ve got this news but there are some advantages... now I can park wherever I like – and I don’t have to worry about my pension now!’
“He made light of it. He was just an exceptional person. All the winners, they really are just all-round exceptional people.”