Enabling Spiritual Care

Debbie Thrower joined BRF in January 2014 as Team Leader for BRF's newest ministry The Gift of Years. A former broadcaster, Debbie is a Church of England Reader in the Winchester diocese and Anna Chaplain to Older People in Alton. Her chaplaincy work follows a career in radio and television. For many years the face of both BBC, and later ITV, in the South, she first trained as a newspaper journalist in London, then in Norfolk. She began working for BBC local radio stations in Leicester and at Radio Solent in Southampton. Her credits include the BBC's One, Six and Nine O'Clock News as a newscaster, a presenter of 'Songs of Praise,' the science series 'The Thrower Report,' Channel Four's 'Collector's Lot,' and Radio Four's 'You and Yours' and 'Sunday' and she had her own daily afternoon show on Radio Two for five years. As an ecumenical Anna Chaplain, Debbie works in residential care homes in Alton and in the wider community. Her media experience informs her approach to promoting the spiritual welfare of older people; using the narrative of people's lives to seek shape, meaning, and purpose, and to foster hope. She is married to Peter, a Bio-Diversity Advisor for the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and they have a daughter and son.