Broadcaster Gloria Hunniford honoured for her work with cancer charities
She lost her daughter to breast cancer.
Television presenter Gloria Hunniford, who lost her daughter Caron Keating to cancer, has been honoured with an OBE for services to cancer charities through breast screening services and cancer support.
A familiar face on the small screen, Hunniford has spent 70 years in showbusiness.
She began her career aged seven as a singer alongside her father, who worked in advertising but also performed as a magician.
Born Mary Winifred Gloria Hunniford in Portadown in Co Armagh, she started her career in television in her native Northern Ireland, working on Good Evening Ulster and Sunday, Sunday, before going to London to work on We Love TV and Open House With Gloria Hunniford.
Since then she has been a continuous presence in living rooms around the country, on Loose Women, This Morning, Rip Off Britain, Home Away From Home and Food: Truth Or Scare.
But it is her services to cancer charities through breast screening services and cancer support that have earned the broadcaster an OBE.
She had a daughter and two sons with her first husband Don Keating but in 2004 lost her daughter Caron, who was also a TV presenter, to breast cancer, just hours after she was brought home for the last time to see her family, including her two sons.
After Caron’s death, Hunniford and her sons Paul and Michael set up the Caron Keating Foundation, which gives grants to all types of cancer charities in the UK, financing professional carers, support groups and counselling services, helping to fund pieces of machinery for faster detection, drivers to take cancer patients to and from treatment centres and complementary therapies to help with pain control.
Hunniford, 77, serves as the administrator of the foundation.
