My buddy Beccy Barr, who has died aged 46 from belly most cancers, was on the high of her sport as a regional TV presenter when she give up, aged 41, and have become a firefighter.
Her new colleagues at Lancashire Fireplace and Rescue had been initially suspicious when this glamorous girl swapped the couch on BBC North West Tonight for night time shifts with Purple Watch in Blackburn, with a few of them suspecting she was secretly recording an exposé for Panorama.
They quickly realised Beccy was completely dedicated to her new profession. In 2021, the hearth service was co-opted into the nationwide Covid vaccination drive. “That is as shut as I’ll ever get to feeling like a superhero!” she tweeted after a busy day of inoculation.
Some tall girls attempt to make themselves smaller. Beccy, a 6ft 2in blonde bombshell (“Massive Fowl” to her lifelong greatest pals from Lancaster ladies’ grammar), was as soon as requested in a job interview why she at all times wore heels. “To intimidate males,” she replied. She obtained the gig. She by no means misplaced her Lancastrian accent, having refused elocution classes early in her profession.
She was born in Cambridge, however grew up within the north-west, the place her mum, Michele Pomphrey, labored as an HR skilled within the NHS, and her father, Roy, was a firefighter (and the inspiration behind Beccy’s later profession change). Beccy studied authorities and economics on the London College of Economics, graduating in 2000, after which did a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism at Metropolis College.
One in all her first TV jobs was as a reporter at Bloomberg in London, the place she quickly amassed one thing of a fan membership amongst Metropolis employees. Discovering that her most ardent admirers had fashioned the Rebecca Barr Appreciation Society on Fb, she joined it, met up with them for pints, and even allow them to cull her profile image to print on mugs for his or her members.
In 2007 she married Alex Meehan, a 6ft 7in industrial govt. The vicar mentioned they had been simply the tallest couple he had ever married. In 2010, whereas Beccy was working for the enterprise information channel CNBC in London, their daughter, Hannah (“the small blonde”), was born. She was crucial individual in Beccy’s life. Beccy joined the BBC two years later, and was a presenter on North West Tonight till 2019.
A health fanatic who accomplished Ironman triathlons and would swim within the docks outdoors Media Metropolis in Salford earlier than her weekend shifts on the BBC, Beccy cherished an evening out as a lot as a exercise.
A Information chief since her 20s, she took a Lady Guiding flag to the highest of Kilimanjaro on a reporting job, and helped develop a brand new badge for Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers known as “Prepared, Regular, Assist!”
When it grew to become clear that her most cancers was terminal, she determined she wished to be a task mannequin for dying nicely, with grace and acceptance. “I’m accepting of it in the primary, but in addition a bit bit pissed off I received’t develop outdated,” she mentioned, whereas planning her funeral.
Alongside her job as a firefighter, Beccy studied for a grasp’s in catastrophe administration at Bournemouth College, studying within the hospice simply earlier than she died that she was being awarded a distinction.
Beccy’s marriage to Alex led to divorce. She is survived by Hannah, and by her dad and mom, sister, Jen, and grandmother, Cissie.
