Cycling around her adopted home town of London in her Mary-Poppins-style bike is a “lifeline” for Gail Porter.

Which is why the TV presenter is thrilled to be the celebrity ambassador for the Women's Tour of Scotland's inaugural race in August, which starts in Dundee and culminates in Edinburgh's Holyrood Park.

Gail is full of admiration for the pro-cyclists who will ride 350 km route but is relieved she only has to limber up for a 5.5 km cycle around Arthur's Seat to mark the end of the three-day event.

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She said: "When they asked me, I said please don't tell me I've got to do it, do you know how old I am?"

A proud Scot who has refused to lose her cheery disposition despite decades living away and bumps in the road that would have floored most, Gail, 48, relishes every moment she spends here.

She said: "I miss Scotland like crazy. The nicest thing about being home is when you're walking along the street, people talk to you. It's that banter that you just don't get in London.

"Everyone knows you but they don't know you. I get told that I look like 'that Gail person off the telly'. I don't think there's that many short baldy people that look the same as me!"

Exercise has helped Gail deal with a catalogue of bad fortune: divorce, alopecia, bipolar disorder, depression, and the death of her beloved mother, Sandra, to cancer.

She was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2011, and even slept rough on a park bench during a year of homelessness.

But even over the phone, her positivity shines through. 

She said: "I'm just such a big ambassador for doing anything outdoors. I don't have a gym membership, I just find a park get on my bike and go. It's so good for my mental health.

Being involved in the first women's cycling event in Scotland, where the prize is the same as that of the men's, is important to Gail, not least because she's the mother of a teenage daughter, Honey, 17.

She said: "It's so empowering. It's so wonderful to give a positive message to other women out there who are maybe too scared to cycle."

Gail used a tandem to take Honey to school and back when she was younger- causing quite a stir with the other mums who crowded their 4x4's around the school gates.

"I was proper old school then and now I ride around in a Mary-Poppins bike with a basket." she said.

Even after being knocked off her own bike by a parked driver and narrowly missing death at the wheels of  a bus five years ago, Gail is a huge advocate of transport on two wheels.

She said: "I was completely shaken. Drivers need to be more aware of cyclists and cyclists need to be completely aware of what's happening around them - we're not terrible people, we just like getting from A to B on a bike."

But Gail wouldn't let the accident keep her down and on the advice of a cab driver, got right back into the saddle.

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She said: "Cycling is my lifeline. I love it, I don't know what I'd do without it.
"I've suffered a lot of stress and mental health issues and when I get on the bike every day I'm out in the fresh air, I'm exercising and everyone smiles.

"I was going to say it puts the wind through my hair, even though I don't have any!"

These days Gail, who started her career presenting Top of the Pops and The Big Breakfast, is working on an upcoming BBC documentary and has just wrapped up the writing of a book that details her depression, but it's her charity work that most inspires her.

She said: "I've been through so much and I'm so fortunate that I work with a lot of charities and I see people who have been through things that I just think, you know what, I went through a dark period, I lost my hair, I lost my mum, lots of stuff but either I wallow in self pity or I'm going to do great things for other people.

"Writing my book made me realise that things like the homelessness could happen again. I lost everything. I got through it but it could happen again. Nothing's there forever.  You've just got to be kind and be a good person."

For more information on the Women's Tour of Scotland, click here.