Debbie Thrower was a regular face on TV when I was growing up - reading the main BBC news, presenting Science and consumer programmes, and Songs of Praise. I remember hearing her voice coming out of Radio 4 and Radio 2.
Debbie was licensed as a lay reader in the Church of England, and, after a nearly 30 year broadcasting career, in 2010 founded Anna Chaplaincy, pioneering a new way of ministering to older people and carers. She’s delighted that there’s now an ever-growing network of Anna Chaplains through BRF (Bible Reading Fellowship), across the UK.

I’m sure many of us make assumptions that older people of faith have everything sorted and sewn up with God, but Debbie says "Once you sit with people, you realise all sorts of doubts and preoccupations creep in towards the end - have I led a good life? what is a good life? fear about the end of ‘me’ and what happens after death. Once we set about trying to explore those questions, we can grow not only in our depth and understanding of what life’s about, but also our hope and expectation about what might come next."