She was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to
broadcasting and charity.
She kept her professional surname Robertson, her first husband's surname, even after he died and she remarried.
Mother of Mark Alexander Robertson (b. 1962).
She worked as a medical secretary in hospitals in Sunderland after she left school.
She started to write articles for magazines. Readers wrote to her with their problems, and she replied. She received a phone call from BBC Breakfast Time asking her to be their agony aunt [one who gives advice on relationships and other problems].
She wrote several novels, plays and self-help books.