Background
Barnes was born in Norwich, and attended Street Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls, Tulse Hill, London.
journalist television presenter
Barnes was born in Norwich, and attended Street Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls, Tulse Hill, London.
She graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in English, French and Spanish, followed by a postgraduate teaching diploma (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) at the University of Birmingham.
She worked for ITN from 1975 to 2004. She did not like school, and left at the age of 16, taking a number of jobs for a year, before leaving to study for A levels at a local polytechnic. She was one of the original news team members at the launch of radio station LBC in 1973, and then worked as a reporter for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 for a year, before joining ITN in 1975.
During her time as an ITN reporter, she covered the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the return of the Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, and the Brixton riots in 1981.
She made her name as a reporter with ITN on the lunchtime news in the late 1970s, but her first stint as a newscaster came in March 1980 when she began alternating with Michael Nicholson as presenter on the News at 5:45. She was a regular presenter on the ITN Lunchtime News and ITN"s weekend news bulletins from July 1985 until March 1989, and again between January 1991 and 1998.
During the intervening period, she was the launch presenter of the Channel 4 Daily breakfast programme. She regularly fronted the ITN flagship News at Ten programme, as well as other current affairs programmes, and in 1994 was voted Newscaster of the Year at the television and Radio Industries Club Awards.
Barnes left ITN in 1999, and then returned in 2003 to work on their short-lived 24-hour Independent Television News Channel, until she left in 2004.
On 4 March 2008, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported that she had suffered a life-threatening stroke that had left her in a coma. Her doctors did not expect her to recover, and several of her closest friends also voiced these fears. Her son James gave doctors permission to switch off her life support system after they had warned him that there was no reasonable hope that she would recover.
While Barnes was dying in hospital, her London flat was burgled.
The Carol Barnes Courageous Child of the Year Award is one of around 20 awards given to unsung yet deserving heroes of Sussex at an annual ceremony, hosted by the newspaper.