Claire Barrowdale
email:claire.barrowdale@bbc.co.uk

What jobs do you do in the newsroom?
I'm one of two Furness reporters, based in the Barrow newsroom and covering the station's South Cumbria patch. The great thing is that every day is different and involves being out and about, reporting live from our radio car and interviewing all sorts of different people.

What’s the most exciting/biggest news story you’ve ever covered?
The outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease in Barrow was a huge event because it affected so many people and also attracted so much national attention. BBC Radio Cumbria broke the story and as a reporter it was fascinating to cover because events unfolded so quickly and involved reporting for national radio and other local stations as well as BBC Radio Cumbria.

Listen to Claire's documentary 'Testing Positive'

The enormous and repeated jobs cuts BAE keeps making at the Barrow shipyard has affected the area in a different way. The immediate impact is on the families involved but the wider issue is how people and the town will cope over the next few years.

Which famous/well-known people have you spoken to during your career?
Politicians Robin Cook, Michael Portillo, Michael Howard and Ken Clarke. Blue Peter presenters Diane-Louise Jordan, Stuart Miles and Tim Vincent in a Russian circus tent. But the interesting one was the TV animal expert Terry Nutkins. He sat a little lion cub on my knee which made my day...until it tried to disconnect my knee from the rest of my leg.

How did you get into radio?
When I was at school I went on work experience to the newsroom at BBC Radio Northampton and they packed me off with a tape recorder to do some interviews. I got my first job there answering the competition line and doing features for weekend programmes. When I was old enough I went off to university and followed that up with a radio journalism diploma and then a real newsroom.

Where was your first broadcast?
When I was a teenager on work exoerience at BBC Radio Northampton. The presenter made me sit in the studio with him while he played my interview on air. I was squirming in my seat in case my friends heard it!

Where else have you worked?
My first job as a journalist was at BBC Radio Norfolk. I was preparing to read my first news bulletin when the news came through about the shootings at Dunblane School and it was my first lesson in going on air when you’re still shocked yourself. My next job was at BBC 3 Counties Radio where I remember reporting from a major rail crash where the train had derailed into a field - but for technical reasons I ended up doing my report from a public pay phone down the road at the railway station with a queue of unsuspecting passengers behind me.

What other jobs have you done besides broadcasting?
I spent a year before University at Fagins Bookshop and during summer holidays worked as a hospital porter. One day in theatre a surgeon mistook me for a medical student and asked me to help him. When I tried to argue I was told to be quiet and do as I was told …so I did!

How long have you worked at BBC Radio Cumbria and why do you like it?
I joined the Carlisle newsroom in 1997, doing some reporting and then mainly producing the breakfast show and reading news bulletins. When the Barrow newsroom expanded in 2001 the chance to spend each day out and about talking to people was too good to miss. If I could do any job, it would be this one.

What are your local connections?
I spent a family holiday here when I was a teenager and decided then that whatever job I ended up doing I wanted to do it in Cumbria.

What would you be if you weren’t a journalist?
I'd love to be a gardener at a big stately home - even in the rain!

What would listeners be surprised to learn about you?
I recently did a series about Barrow's RNLI Lifeboat Station which included going out to sea on the lifeboat - and managed to do the whole thing without admitting to the crew (or my boss!) that I'm terrified of water!

Read Claire's report from Barrow's RNLI Lifeboat Station

What do you do when you’re not broadcasting?
I'm a trainee glider pilot and South Cumbria is definitely the best place in Britain to learn because the views are so spectacular.