TELEVISION newsreader Julia Somerville has had an operation to remove
a brain tumour.
ITN said the News At Ten presenter had the benign tumour removed at
London's Charing Cross Hospital a month ago. She is now recovering at
home.
Hardly anyone at the TV station knew of her illness.
She has wanted to keep the problem as quiet as possible and hopes to
return to her job in a few months' time.
A mother of two young children, the 45-year-old newsreader was
discharged from hospital three weeks ago after spending little more than
a week as a patient.
ITN's editor-in-chief, Mr Stewart Purvis, paid tribute to her
professionalism. ''The few of us who have known about the operation have
been enormously impressed by the calm and courageous way in which Julia
has handled it,'' he said.
''We expect to see her back on the screen in the autumn.''
ITN's chief executive, Mr Bob Phillis, said: ''We all very much look
forward to her return to work.
''Both she and the Charing Cross Hospital have been quite magnificent
throughout this ordeal. I just hope she is now allowed to be alone with
her family, which will ensure the speediest possible recovery.''
An ITN spokeswoman said: ''We have not got a date for her return but
she will be given as much time as she needs.
''She is recovering well and everyone hopes she makes a speedy
recovery. We will do everything we can to ensure that.''
She is married to BBC executive Ray Gowdridge, and joined ITN in 1987
to present its lunchtime programme News At One. Two years later she
became part of the News At Ten team.
Landmarks in her career include presenting News At One from Washington
during the signing of the nuclear arms limitation agreement by
Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
She went to Sussex University and started in journalism on Homes and
Gardens magazine. She moved to the BBC in 1973 as a radio sub-editor,
becoming a reporter and then labour affairs correspondent in 1981. She
joined the Nine O'Clock News in 1984 and was a senior presenter when she
left three years later to go to ITN.
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