Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Chris Needs

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Nationality
  
Welsh

Employer
  
BBC Cymru Wales

Partner(s)
  
Gabe Cameron

Movies
  
A Very British Cover-up

Website
  
ChrisNeeds.com

Books
  
The Jenkins's's's's's

Name
  
Chris Needs


Chris Needs Chris Needs Why I hate being a gay man in Wales Wales

Full Name
  
Christopher Needs

Born
  
12 March 1954 (age 70) (
1954-03-12
)
Cwmafan, Neath Port Talbot, Wales

Occupation
  
Radio presenter, pianist

Board member of
  
Founder, Chris Needs Hospital Appeal

Chris needs greg james very fuuny


Christopher Needs, MBE (born 12 March 1954) is a radio broadcaster, working with BBC Radio Wales.

Contents

Chris Needs BBC Radio Wales39 Chris Needs MBE with the English poster

Chris needs go compare


Early and personal life

Chris Needs BBC Radio Wales Chris Needs Chris Needs

Born in Cwmafan near Port Talbot, he was educated at the local schools. During his teenage years he was sexually abused as a child, by someone whom he refuses to this day to identify, and consequently tried to commit suicide.

Chris Needs Chris Needs Tour Dates amp Tickets

Needs had known that he was gay whilst a teenager, and presently lives with his partner Gabe Cameron, who often answers the calls to the show.

Career

Needs is an accomplished pianist and has accompanied Bonnie Tyler. His other jobs have included: language translator, actor, tour guide, and all-round vocal / piano entertainer, and through his work he has lived in Spain, Gibraltar, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Jersey. He speaks English, Welsh, Spanish and Dutch and is learning German.

He has been broadcasting for several years, and started his radio career with the Touch AM radio station before co-presenting the mid-morning magazine show Live Time on Radio Wales while also appearing on S4C television. Since 2002 he has had his own show, broadcast every week night between 22.00 and 1.00. In the period 2001 to 2003, Needs was joined nightly on his radio show by his friend Nikki-Sue, a talented show singer and Tina Turner impersonator.

Most of the people who call into his show belong to an organisation called The Chris Needs Friendly Garden Association. The Garden as it has become known, has almost 50,000 members from mainly Wales but also as far away as Queensland, Australia. Members of the Garden are given their own identification code, usually starting with an M for male members, A for Animals, or without a letter for Female members.

Charity works

Needs established and heads the Chris Needs Hospital Appeal, a registered charity that supports South Wales hospitals. For his charity work and services to broadcasting he was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the 2005 New Year's Honours.

Shortly after his mother died in 2001, Needs had started having symptoms of diabetes. Eventually, when he went to his local pharmacy to have himself checked, his sugar level was 61 mmol/l (1,098 mg/dl). His pharmacist had never met anyone who had such a high blood sugar. Subsequently diagnosed with Type2 Diabetes, he acts as Diabetes Cymru's celebrity ambassador.

Awards

  • 1996 – Sony Radio Academy Awards Silver Award for Best Regional Presenter.
  • 2009 – Variety Club of Great Britain Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • Books

  • 2007 – Like It Is: My Autobiography
  • 2008 – The Jenkins's's's's's
  • 2009 – And There's More ... My Autobiography – part 2
  • References

    Chris Needs Wikipedia