Carol Vorderman has shared a heartbreaking photo and beautiful message about her late mum as she marks another Mother's Day without her.
The 63-year-old TV personality posted the photo on her Instagram Stories, which sees Carol sat next to her mum as they enjoyed a meal out after her cancer diagnosis. Carol captioned the snap with: "My mum's last meal out which was for Mother's Day when she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2017. We had many happy Mother's Day[s]."
Carol later posted the same photo on her Instagram page, with a longer caption in which she shared anecdotes from her life as well as a tale about the time her mum forged her signature in a bid to land Carol the job on Countdown, which went on to make her name on TV.
Carol wrote: "Mum and I were very close. She had to bring us up by herself in poverty and I was always her baby. My brother Anton and sister Trixie were older than me. My mum and father (Mr Vorderman) had been married for years, they separated when I was 2 weeks old and he then would have nothing to do with me...I eventually met him when I was 42 years old.
"When Mum married my stepfather - I called him my 'Dad' and adored him - she separated from him a few times over 10 years, and she would take me and run away, including once to Billy Smarts Circus when I was 9!!! Mum and I came as a team. When she left my 'Dad' for good when I was 20, we were effectively homeless (I was living in a BandB and she had a room in a house with students), so we moved north to Leeds where between us we could afford to live, and buy a little house in 1982 in Headingley."
Carol continued: "Three weeks later she saw an article about a new TV show being made In Leeds called Countdown and it was go out on a new TV channel called Channel 4.... and they needed someone to answer the numbers game! She wrote to the producer as if she was me and then FORGED MY SIGNATURE!!!! And that’s how I started on telly."
The TV star and Pride of Britain Awards host added: "Mum always lived with me through my adult life... through my marriage and through everything, either next door or in our house. So she helped to bring up my children. I employed her from when I was 25 years old to run my office. She was my everyday until she wasn’t. But even now it’s like she’s still there as she lives on in my children too. Happy Mother’s Day Mum xx"
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