Daredevil TV author tells of her adventures

TELEVISION presenter and author Helen Skelton- Myler dropped in at a junior school to give a talk about her new book and famous daredevil adventures.

The former Blue Peter host visited pupils at Cheadle Hulme School where she spoke about her latest children’s novel – entitled Amy Wild: Amazon Summer – and answered students’ questions.

She also signed copies of her book for the delighted youngsters.

There were more than 250 pupils in the audience including those visiting from Greenbank Preparatory School, Hursthead Junior School and North Cheshire Jewish Primary School.

The nine and tenyear- olds were enthralled to hear about Helen’s record breaking kayak challenge which was the real- life inspiration behind the book.

The 31- year- old paddled the entire length of the Amazon river for Sport Relief in 2010; travelling 2,010 miles on a solo journey from Peru to Brazil.

Tim Hudson who arranged the visit for Cheadle Hulme School said pupils were thrilled to meet the celebrity and listen to her stories.

He said: “They were all very excited to meet her and particularly excited to get their books signed.

“She is very popular amongst the pupils of Years Five and Six.

“There was a lot of anticipation ahead of Helen’s visit and the children were all wearing beaming smiles when she arrived.

“They were all absolutely wrapped by her talk and she really engaged with the pupils - they were fascinated.

“Pupils from our school and the visiting schools had lots of questions to ask which Helen was very happy to answer.”

Examples of questions Helen was asked included ‘ What kind of things did you eat whilst on your kayak adventure?’ and ‘What was the scariest thing you saw whilst you were there’?

Mr Hudson added that, as you might expect from a children’s TV presenter, Helen proved a big hit with the pupils.

He said: “When she met the children face to face she had a laugh and a joke with them and was very friendly and easy to talk to.

“Afterwards the pupils were all buzzing about the vist - there were lots of smiles and they were clutching their books and signed photos with pride.”