CELEBRITY SLEEPERS / PRESENTERS
We are very grateful to the following well-known personalities who are Sleeping Out for the Homeless on May 15th, and/or have kindly agreed to support the event by speaking on the night during our evening presentations from 8pm.
The Bishop of Winchester
The Mayor of Winchester
The Deputy Mayor of Winchester
Debbie Thrower - Broadcaster
Peter Henley - Broadcaster
Ed Mitchell - author of 'From Headlines to Hard Times'
The Dean of Winchester Cathedral
Canon Roly Riem
Martin Tod - Winchester Liberal Democrat Candidate
Steve Brine - Winchester Conservative Candidate
The Right Reverend Michael Scott-Joynt became the 96th Bishop of Winchester in 1995. The Bishop of Winchester also sits as a member in the House of Lords and is Prelate of the Order of the Garter. Within the House of Bishops, the Bishop has particular responsibility and interest in the fields of Church and State/Monarchy, Marriage, and Gender; and he chaired the Working Party which produced Marriage in Church after Divorce in January 2000. On the strength of the extensive Partner relationships of the Diocese of Winchester with Anglican Dioceses in Burundi, the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Bishop Michael is an active member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention. He has also spoken extensively on the need for peace in the Middle East. In 2009 Bishop Michael became a Patron of Winchester Churches Nightshelter.
The 809th Mayor of Winchester is Cllr Michael Read. Cllr Read lives in Denmead with his wife, Jan. They have been married for 40 years and they have two children, Carl and Zoe. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, but moved to Portsmouth at a young age, where he spent most of his childhood. He has always enjoyed the adventure of outdoor life and as a young man he joined the Royal Marine Cadets where he became a Regimental Sergeant Major. He later joined the Scout movement to which he still maintains strong links.
The Dean of Winchester Cathedral
The Very Reverend James Atwell - James was brought up on a farm in rural Wiltshire (hence why he drives a traditional Landrover), but after a curacy in Peckham has spent most of his parish ministry in East Anglia. He has been a Dean for 15 years both in Bury St Edmunds and - for the last three years - in Winchester. As well as enjoying fairground organs and historic houses, his interests also extend to working with the Delhi Brotherhood and inspecting at Harvard. His contact with the homeless of Winchester is literally on the doorstep, when people come to ask for help in the Deanery Porch. The Cathedral itself supports both the Night Shelter and Trinity Centre, and is delighted to host this Sleep Out event in the Close.
Canon Chancellor & Pastor of Winchester Cathedral
Canon Roland Riem - Roly Riem has worked at Winchester Cathedral for four years. His current responsibilities within the Cathedral include developing its welcome and interpretation for visitors and pilgrims alike and enhancing its educational facilities. Roly's wider concerns include working as a governor for Peter Symonds College and as a director of Keystone Housing. In July Roly is to become Chair of Churches Together in Winchester. Roly values the Cathedral's partnership with many other groups in public life and has sponsored talks and lectures on a variety of subject of common concern, including a series of climate change with the University of Winchester.
Deputy Mayor of Winchester
Deputy Mayor for 2008-2009 is Cllr Dominic Hiscock. The Deputy Mayor stands in for the Mayor should he or she be unavailable. In the following year it is tradition for the Deputy Mayor to be elected Mayor.
Debbie Thrower is a British television presenter who has anchored for ITV Meridian's flagship news programme Meridian Tonight since its inception in 1993. Debbie's TV credits include newscasting for the BBC, BBC South Today and Songs of Praise. She and colleague Fred Dinenage were presenters of Meridian Tonight (South) when it first aired in 1993. In addition, she was the first person seen after the changeover from TVS to Meridian, shortly after the stroke of midnight on New Years Day 1993, covering the celebrations at Winchester Cathedral, which was celebrating its 900th anniversary. More recently, Debbie was the presenter for Channel 4s popular antiques programme Collectors Lot, which aired on weekday afternoons, gaining two million viewers a day. She also had a BBC Radio 2 afternoon show between 1995 and 1997 replacing long-time presenter Gloria Hunniford. On 13 January 2009, Thrower confirmed in an interview with The News in Portsmouth that she is leaving ITV Meridian to concentrate on freelance work and her voluntary lay ministry as a Church of England Reader. In 2009 Debbie became a Patron of Winchester Churches Nightshelter. Debbie is taking part in the Big Sleep Out as part of the Upper Itchen Benefice team.
Peter Henley reports from Westminster for South Today, the BBC 1 regional news programme. He also writes about South of England Politics for BBC Online and is often heard on local radio as well as presenting part of the Politics Show every Sunday from a different location in the South. He trained as a local reporter in Cornwall and then Yorkshire before moving to Reading . He's stayed in the South ever since, covering five elections and interviewing all the party leaders since Edward Heath. Favourite assignments include flying to Antigua at three hours notice to report on a volcano erupting and mysteriously being unable to come straight home. Peter enjoys old cars, new gadgets and playing cricket. He lives in the New Forest with his three sons and wife Sam.
Ed Mitchell was one of Europe ’s leading business broadcasters for many years interviewing many hundreds of top financial and political figures. He worked with some of the world’s most respected news organisations including Reuters, the BBC, ITN, Channel Four, European Business Channel ( Zurich ), Asia Business News ( Singapore ), European Business News ( London ) and CNBC. He was regularly on News at Ten, Budget programmes, lunchtime and breakfast television, and a well-known face in City dealing rooms. His career then took a rockier course. Redundancy, dozens of short term jobs, mounting debt problems, alcoholism, divorce and bankruptcy led to homelessness and sleeping rough on Hove seafront. A quirk of fate got him into re-hab and on to the path of recovery – a story covered in the ITV documentary Saving Ed Mitchell. One year later, there was a second documentary on ITV... Ed Mitchell: What Happened Next. This coincided with the publication of his book ‘From Headlines to Hard Times in January 2009.
Martin is Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Winchester. He lives and works in the heart of Winchester with his wife Michaela. He joined the Liberal party in 1983. Martin’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Garnier, was Dean of Winchester and features in Winchester Museum as an ‘anti-muckabite’ campaigner to bring a sewerage system to Winchester in the 1860s. He was a friend of Palmerston, and is the ‘Dean Garnier’ of both the eponymous garden in the Cathedral close, and Garnier Road, leading past the old pumping station.
Steve is the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Winchester. He lives locally with his wife Susie, their one year old daughter Emily and 'Popcorn' the lively Labrador . Steve is a former radio journalist having spent time with the BBC where he was one of the organisation’s youngest reporters and producers in BBC Local Radio at the age of 18. He spent periods with BBC Radio Surrey and BBC Southern Counties Radio as well as contributing as a freelance reporter to Radio Five Live. Steve also spent time working in Chicago , USA with the Tribune Media Group's WGN Radio. He currently works with a successful PR and Marketing firm specialising in the golf and leisure industry.