More About Anne Diamond OBE

Anne Diamond | Campaigning

Anne Diamond is passionate about learning and speaking about gutsy women who have fought to change our world; a group that Anne herself is most definitely a part of, as well as the likes of Shirley Nolan who formed the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register, Diana Lamplugh, who founded a movement to stop people becoming victims of aggression, and Rosemary Cox who helped found the national organ donor register, which now has over 25 million people on it.

Anne Diamond | Cot Death Campaigner

Anne Diamond has found solace in similar stories after her own tragedy. In 1991, she lost her son Sebastian to cot death when he was just four and a half months old. At the time, over 2,500 babies were dying in Britain every year from cot death, but no-one knew why. However, she soon caught wind of a national study happening in New Zealand, as well as a smaller study in Avon in the UK that found out the babies were dying because they were sleeping on their tummies. The truth was, that the Department of Health at the time knew this fact but was waiting for more data before telling the British public, which meant hundreds of babies died needlessly.

In her anguish, Anne tried everything she could think of to get this information out there and to help other families prevent going through the same trauma. She started to appear on every TV and radio programme she could to demand the government create a campaign to help save lives. After initially funding her own TV advert, she had a break through, and the government created the Back To Sleep campaign which immediately started saving lives; cot death numbers plummeted from over 2,500 a year to about 300.

It’s believed that Anne’s part in the campaign has saved around 20,000 babies, and thanks to this achievement, she was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the first non-medic to receive the award.

Anne Diamond | Other Charity Ambassador Work

Her campaigning didn’t stop there though, and she has since turned her attention to causes including XYZ and obesity. Anne herself underwent gastric surgery, and she has used her own personal experience to help others in a similar situation. In 2008 she became Patron of the National Obesity Forum to help raise awareness of the growing impact that being overweight was having on the NHS. Her main campaign message was to try and get GPs, health ministers and health workers to be more compassionate for the overweight and obese and to offer constructive treatment.

Anne Diamond | Media Career

Anne pioneered breakfast TV in the early 80s, anchoring ‘TV-am’ where she interviewed global leaders, celebrities, royals such as Princess Diana and top politicians including Margaret Thatcher. She reported from locations including Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Brandenburg Gate during the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hollywood and No 10 Downing Street.

She presented daytime TV across the BBC, ATV, ITN/ITV and GB News including Central News (1982), ATV Today (1981), News After Noon, TV Weekly (1989), Good Morning With Anne and Nick (1992-1996), Sky News and Breakfast With Stephen and Anne. 

She went on to present The National Health Lottery Live on Channel 5 and has appeared on The Wright Stuff (2003-2018), Loose Women (2000-2018), Jeremy Vine (2018-2021), Celebrity Big Brother (2002) and Costa Del Celebrity (2018).

Anne Diamond | Writing Career

She contributes a popular column for The Daily Mail newspaper on women’s health and family issues and is the author of several successful books, including A Gift From Sebastian: Story of a Cot Death (1995), A New You: Start Your New Life Today (2003), Girl Next Door (2005) and Winning the Fat War: Expert Ways to Lose Weight in a Fat World (2008).

Anne Diamond | Speaking Topics

– Journalism and Broadcasting

– Health Campaigns

– Cot Death

– Breast Cancer

– Obesity

– The Media

Anne Diamond makes for an emotive, entertaining, interesting and influential speaker, event host and facilitator; taking your audience members on a journey that will stay with them long after they’ve left.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book Presenter and Health Campaigner Anne Diamond OBE for your corporate event.

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