Helen

Skelton

PHOTO:Ruth Crafer

Helen Skelton joined the Blue Peter team in the summer of 2008, as the 33rd presenter of the long running show and during this time she has firmly cemented her place alongside the likes of John Noakes as a Blue Peter action star.

In 2009 she became only the second woman ever to complete the Nambia Ultra Marathon – a gruelling 78 mile course through the Namibian desert, which she finished in under 24 hours. Two weeks later she was back in her running shoes, taking part in the London Marathon for Leonard Cheshire Disability. 

In early 2010 she decided to push herself further by kayaking 2,010 miles down the Amazon in support of Sport Relief. Along the way she broke two Guiness World Records; the longest solo journey by kayak and the longest kayak by a woman in 24 hours.

Never one to rest on her laurels, for her Comic Relief challenge in 2011 Helen drew inspiration from "Man on Wire" and decided to train in the art of highwire walking. A BBC1 special, Girl On Wire, followed her progress from her first tentative steps three feet off the ground, to her spectacular 150 meter long, 66 meter high walk between the towers of Battersea Power Station.  The special led to Helen's first Best Presenter nomination at the 2011 Children's BAFTAs as well as earning its own nomination in the Best Factual category.

All of these remarkable achievements however were utterly eclipsed by her next challenge for Sport Relief.  In January 2012 Helen travelled 500 miles across Antarctica to the South Pole by ski, kite and bike, enduring temperatures of -48 degrees.  However even that wasn't enough to stop her breaking another world record by becoming the fastest person to travel 100km by kite ski.  Her entire journey from day one of training through to completing her challenge was broadcast in a nine part series of Blue Peter Specials on BBC1, for which she received her second Best Presenter Children's BAFTA nomination in 2012.

February 2013 saw Helen co-present Holiday Hit Squad, a four-part BBC1 series alongside Angela Rippon and Joe Crowley. Helen has also become a regular reporter on 5 Live, covering the London Marathon, Epsom Derby and Wimbledon since 2010.  She has also presented two documentaries for the station in conjunction with Comic Relief and Children In Need.  The former was a ground breaking report on the sexual exploitation of children by criminal gangs in Britain, while the latter enabled her to visit two projects based in Liverpool to find out about their outreach work with local youths, affected by the drug and gang culture problems in the City. 

Having grown up on a farm in the Lake District, it was inevitable that Helen would return to her rural roots; she has reported for Country Tracks and in 2011 was welcomed to the Countryfile team. 

Helen joined the great and good of Blue Peter presenters past in aid of Comic Relief 2009, when she appeared on Let's Dance for Comic Relief, dancing to Jailhouse Rock. She also recently donned her dancing shoes again to compete in the 2012 Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special on BBC1.

Prior to joining Blue Peter, Helen anchored Newsround and presented live strands for its weekend sister programme, Sportsround.

Helen began her career in broadcasting working on Border ITV before spending time working on radio at CMF. Aged 23 she moved to co-presenting on BBC Radio Cumbria, becoming one of the youngest people ever to present a breakfast show on the BBC network.

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