Caron Keating

Early life and education

Keating was born in Fulham, west London, to parents from Northern Ireland. When she was three months old her family returned to Ulster where she was raised. Her parents were the television presenter Gloria Hunniford and the BBC producer Donald Keating. Keating attended Methodist College, Belfast, where she gained 8 'O' levels and 3 'A' levels. She was accepted to study at the University of Bristol where she graduated three years later aged 21 with a BA Honours Degree in English and Drama.

Broadcasting career

Keating's television career began in Northern Ireland where she presented The Video Picture Show, Channel One and the music programme Greenrock, but her big break undoubtedly came when she was selected to join the team of Blue Peter from 13 November 1986.

Keating joined Blue Peter and appeared on the programme with Peter Duncan, Janet Ellis, Mark Curry, Yvette Fielding, and John Leslie. Highlights of her Blue Peter career included a trip to Moscow in 1987 during the perestroika period, swimming with sharks, abseiling down skyscrapers and standing strapped to the top of a light aircraft whilst it performed aerial acrobatics. She also interviewed serving Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on the programme in 1988.

After four years, Keating left Blue Peter on 22 January 1990. Keating joined BBC Radio 5 where amongst other programmes she co-hosted an early 90s afternoon show with film critic Mark Kermode, the show was named A game of two halves and in his autobiography Kermode described Keating as "The very dictionary definition of Lovely". She presented several other TV programmes including This Morning, before breast cancer was diagnosed in 1997. Keating was the face of Sainsbury's Reward Card from 1996 to 1999 and also appeared in a TV commercial for So Good soya drink in 1999. 1999 also saw her present We Can Work It Out.

Illness and death

Keating was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997. After various conventional and alternative treatments, including a period away from her family on the Gold Coast, Australia, and at a hospice in Switzerland, she died at the age of 41, on 13 April 2004, at her mother's house in Sevenoaks, Kent.

Family

Keating married Russ Lindsay in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1991. Their two sons were born in Hammersmith, London: Charles Jackson Lindsay (born 1994) and Gabriel Don Lindsay (born 1997). Her second son, Gabriel, has the middle name of his maternal grandfather, who died just a few days before he was born. The family settled in Cornwall for a few years at the turn of the century. Russ Lindsay remarried television presenter Sally Meen on 4 September 2006.

The Caron Keating Foundation

Set up in Keating's memory, The Caron Keating Foundation is a fund-raising partnership set up to raise money to offer financial support to professional carers, complementary healing practitioners, and support groups dealing with cancer patients, as well as individuals and families who are affected by the disease. It will also financially help a number of cancer charities with their ongoing quest for prevention, early detection and hopefully an ultimate cure. It was set up by her mother, TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, and her two brothers Michael and Paul Keating.