The celebrated TV personality and founder of Childline Esther Rantzen was honoured by Manchester Metropolitan University yesterday for her services to children.

Still at the forefront of national campaigning to protect vulnerable and abused children, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters at the Graduation Ceremony for MMU Cheshire, which runs the UK’s only honours degree in Abuse Studies, a multi-disciplinary social science course to prepare graduate for professional work in child protection.

Over her career, Esther Rantzen has undertaken copious amounts of public work which has changed the experiences of children and young people in the UK. In her media career, she was responsible for campaigning for changes to legislation to protect the safety of children and produced and presented the programme ‘Childwatch’, highlighting the issue of child abuse and again led to legislative changes.

In the 1980s she was responsible for the introduction of ‘ChildLine’, the first helpline of its kind for children to report issues of abuse and neglect. Since its inception, 3.2 million children have been counselled through the service.

Esther is now president of ChildLine and a trustee of the NSPCC.
She is also patron/vice president of 15 charities focusing on protection for children and vulnerable adults. In 2006 she was awarded a CBE for her services to children.

More recently, she has developed ‘The Silver Line’, which is a helpline for elderly people, aimed at reducing loneliness and providing opportunities to report abuse and neglect.

Speaking at the ceremony, Esther reiterated: “If you have suffered as a child or young person it is not the end of the world. If someone cares for you, you will survive and survive well, for 3.2 million ChildLine has been that person and that is transformative.

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