Just under a week ago, the world was told that Carol Barnes had suffered a massive stroke and was gravely ill. Unfortunately it was only going to be a case of 'waiting for time' before the sad end to this story was going to be reported.
Two years ago, there was an article in Female magazine;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=405835&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source
Here Carol spoke honestly about how natural remedies helped her cope with the menopause which for years had previously made her life so difficult. It wasn't just about her and menopause but her talking so honestly of her job with the ITN, reporting in the Gulf war with her cameraman husband, a father with both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's who died not long after diagnosis; this was followed by her mother's death shortly afterwards. That period of her life when only aged in her mid/late forties was extremely stressful and she was being hit with menopausal symptoms. on top of it all.
So many women would have been helped by that article because if Carol, a woman in the public eye could manage with natural remedies then why couldn't they. I guess this issue is close to my heart because my mother was the same and NEVER took HRT choosing natural remedies and years ago what was there for women?
There is more than remedies for menopause to Carol Barnes' and her life. She was a consummate professional in all that she did, an elegant lady and excellent reporter. Years ago, there were not many female reporters/presenters on television; I can only think of Carole and Kate Addy who were prepared to go to war torn and down right dangerous countries. Maybe she was bloody minded but her reports were always informative including her most recent one where she has been trying to help her old collegue homeless, alcoholic Ed Mitchell, to sort his life out;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=507857&in_page_id=1879
Tragically, aged 63 her life has been cut short and she died of a stroke on 8th March 2008 in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, her husband and son at her side,
TRIBUTES:
CAROLE'S SON JAMES
"My mum was a beautiful, kind and delicate person - a person loved by many and whom I am desperately proud to call my mother.
She did everything in her power to love, care and provide for me, my sister and all those close to her.
I am eternally indebted to her for what she has given us. I will always love her and she will forever be in my heart."
DENIS MaCSHANE, EX PARTNER
"Carole was the youngest 63-year-old that I knew and someone who was full of life".
"The last time I saw her, a couple of weeks ago, we had a great gossip. She was planning to go on a golfing and safari holiday with a girlfriend, she was fit and she had absolutely everything going for
"We were really distressed by suggestions in the press that the stroke happened because she was felled by grief after the death of Clare. She grieved, we both grieved, but this was a massive haemorrhagic stroke which came out of the blue."
"Carol bred affection, warmth, political acuteness and humanity wherever she lived and worked.
Losing our daughter Clare was a terrible blow but she recovered her bounce and joy for life and last time we talked she was full of plans for the future and love for James.
Her so sudden death robbed a massive network of friends of one of the best."
DERMOT MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS PRESENTER
"She couldn't have been kinder, more helpful and caring to someone like me.
I was in awe of the mighty Carol Barnes and she was just so down to earth, so helpful but, above all, so professional. She was a down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving, unselfish individual who was extremely inspirational to many."
JON SNOW, CHANNEL 4 NEWS PRESENTER WHO STARTED AT lONDON'S LBC RADIO STATION ON THE SAME DAY AS MISS BARNES IN 1973
"She was one of the very first women presenters and a very good reporter. She was great fun to be with. I remember she was very much the heart and soul of the place. Everyone loved her."
ALISTAIR STEWART, A CLOSE FRIEND AND TV PRESENTER
"Barnsey was a rare creature - as capable on location as she was in her studio. Her public face was that of polished professional. Privately she was just a lovely, generous person. Despite all that life threw at her she remained great fun to be with. We shall miss her."
JOHN HUMPHRYS, THE PRESENTER OF RADIO 4'S TODAY PROGRAMME
"She had a great likeability which was able to transmit itself directly through the screen."
ESTHER RANTZEN, FORMER BBC BROADCASTER
"The word everyone associates with Carol is professionalism. She did her job supremely well. She was of course very attractive to look at and listen to, and of course that helped. But what viewers responded to was her journalism."
JENNIE BOND, THE BBC'S FORMER ROYAL CORRESPONDENT
"She was great fun to be with, very kind and very funny. At the same time she was the consummate professional."
STEWART PURVIST, ITN'S FORMER CHIEF EXECUTIVE
"Even though Carol's death seemed inevitable it's still a very, very sad day at such a comparatively young age for somebody who was still absolutely full of life and vigour and excitement.
And all her friends are mourning her - 'Barnesy' as she used to be known - at ITN, so many happy memories both professionally and also socially in the extraordinary world that television news was in those days."
PETER SISSONS, BBC NEWS PRESENTER
"Carol's death has left all her friends in broadcasting that much poorer. I am just so proud to have known and worked with her.
Compelling on-screen authority, the complete professional, and always totally feminine. Despite her personal heartbreak her smile always lit up a room."
NICHOLAS OWEN, BBC PRESENTER
"Carol Barnes came over on air as thoroughly down-to-earth, thoroughly straightforward.
You might almost use the world ordinary, but I don't think she was quite that but she was certainly never aggressive with people.
So people could like her, viewers could like her, and they were right to like her, because that was the person she was off-screen, as well as on-screen."
ED MITCHELL, FORMER NEWSCASTER
"It's very, very upsetting news. She was a good friend and a good colleague over some 20 years.
She was extremely sympathetic to my problems at the time of the documentary [about his battle with alcoholism].
She was willing me to succeed. It's just so awful to learn that she isn't now here."
ROY GREENSLADE, FORMER EDITOR OF THE DAILY MIRROR
"I think as a news presenter what she brought to it was an intelligence, because she had that way I think of suggesting it was more than simply reading aloud.
She understood what she was saying, what she was doing, and she was a very tactful and good interviewer.
Not one of those who was a kind of a savage or a rottweiler, but somebody who could get the best out of an interview simply by asking the right questions."
PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN
"The whole country will be saddened to hear the news of Carol Barnes' death, and our thoughts are with her family, friends and colleagues."
"She was a great broadcaster and an incisive interviewer, and she will be greatly missed."
Barnes began her working life as a teacher before moving into broadcasting in 1973 with a job at London radio station LBC. For more information, see links below.
Sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/09/nbarnes109.xml
http://www.itv.com/News/Articles/Carole-Barnes-has-died.html?cmpid=PPC_GOOGLE_carol%20barnes&ps
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7276854.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7285385.stm
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