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News reader turned firefighter dies at just 46

<p>BBC presenter turned firefighter Beccy Barr has passed away at the age of 46 after a battle with cancer. </p> <p>Barr's family confirmed the sad news on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “Beccy passed away peacefully this morning”.</p> <p>“She spent her last few days at @SJHospice who provided the most dignified and compassionate care to Beccy and her whole family. Donations to the hospice can be made in Beccy’s memory.”</p> <p>After 20 years at the British public broadcaster, Barr shocked her loyal viewers announcing she would be leaving her media career behind to follow in her father's footsteps by becoming a firefighter. </p> <p>In February 2022, she updated her fans on social media, explaining she had received distinction marks in all her training assessments for the Lancashire Fire and Rescue team. </p> <p>Then in December 2023, Barr revealed that she was diagnosed with “incurable cancer”, writing to her followers at the time, “Two lessons I’ve learned from this distinctly sub-optimal experience: 1) Life is wild. 2) People have an utterly astounding and boundless capacity for love, care and friendship.”</p> <p>BBC presenter Roger Johnson was one of many who paid tribute to his former colleague, saying, “Beccy was courageous in so many ways.”</p> <p>“In the way she faced her illness, of course, but she also had the courage to walk away from a successful TV career to retrain as a firefighter."</p> <p>“She wanted to make a difference and she excelled at that, too.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: BBC / X (Twitter) </em></p>

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"Stop It!": Nat Barr shuts down Kyle on live TV

<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sunrise </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">host Nat Barr told off Kyle Sandilands during his appearance on the breakfast show this morning.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making a guest appearance on the show to celebrate his radio show with Jackie ‘O’ Henderson claiming the title of Sydney’s number one breakfast show in ratings for the first time, the controversial shock jock got a strong reaction when he started joking about Nat’s husband.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After chatting about their latest success, Kyle pulled out a copy of Nat Barr’s cover of </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Australian Women’s Weekly </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">to show her.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Look what I’m reading Nat,” he said, with Nat replying, “that’s so nice Kyle!”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kyle then went on to compliment Nat on her sons.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“These are good looking boys,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Just by looking at the photos, I can tell what a great mum you are. Those kids, they look at you with adoring eyes. I admire that.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After Nat admitted the photoshoot was a bit “scary” as they had never done anything like that before, Kyle asked why her husband wasn’t included.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Where’s your husband? How come he’s been kept out?” the 50-year-old asked.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“He won’t do anything,” Nat said. “He hates publicity … He’s got his own life and his own job. He’s like, yeah, leave that to you.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nat has been married to her husband, Andrew Thompson, who is an Oscar-nominated film editor, since 1995.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I think press media should track down what Nat’s husband’s doing,” Kyle quipped. “Let’s do a whole expos</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">é</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on a day in the life of Nat’s husband.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nat went from laughing as she had throughout the segment, to raising her finger and giving the radio host a strict warning.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Kyle, I’m going to go all mum on you,” she said. “Stop it.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Earlier in the show, Kyle had explained why he thinks he and Jackie have been performing so well lately.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’ve been doing radio a bit different to everyone else,” he said. “Everyone else has the same rule: Speak for three minutes, have a little laugh at the end and play the ad break.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’ve changed it. We talk for 20 minutes about something, because you can’t always get a good conversation in in three minutes.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kyle also mentioned that the breadth of voices on their show helps.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We don’t just have the man and the girl, we have the full ensemble of all the other cast - the newsreader, all the producers, it’s like an episode of </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Seinfeld</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.”</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: Channel 7</span></em></p>

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