Former war correspondent and award winning BBC journalist Kate Adie is to relive the highlights of her long career at The Mowlem in Swanage to help raise money for Dorset County Hospital.
A portion of the profits from An Evening with Kate Adie, on Friday 25th April 2025, will go to the Emergency and Critical Care Appeal of which Kate, a Dorset resident herself, is a patron.
Kate Adie, talking here at the Leeds International Festival of Ideas in 2024, brings her show to The Mowlem
£2.5 million appeal for essential extras
The appeal aims to raise £2.5 million to provide essential extras at the Dorchester hospital which are outside the NHS budget, including paediatric bed space and equipment and overnight accommodation for relatives of patients.
The Dorset County Hospital provides many critical services for patients from Swanage and Purbeck, including chemotherapy treatment at its Fortuneswell Unit, which is currently undergoing a £2 million refurbishment.
Building work is also taking place there to create a new emergency department and critical care unit which will replace the current accident and emergency department, with the new building due to open in 2027.
Kate Adie and Dr Will McConnell launching the Emergency and Critical Care appeal in 2024
“We greatly appreciate Kate”
Will McConnell, consultant respiratory physician from Dorset County Hospital who will lead proceedings at The Mowlem, said:
“I am tremendously excited to be able to hear Kate’s amazing stories about her life and career which are more relevant than ever now, and to hear how she sees the future of journalism, the BBC and the health service in the rapidly changing media landscape.
“We greatly appreciate Kate agreeing to be our patron, helping to raise awareness and support for this important appeal to fund major enhancements to the new Emergency Department and Critical Care unit.
“The appeal will fund extra facilities for the new unit, such as overnight accommodation for relatives, an outdoor garden for patients, welfare facilities for clinical staff and art works which can help create a sympathetic and healing environment for the benefit of all.
“The Covid pandemic sharply brought into focus the shortage of beds in critical care at Dorset County Hospital and the new unit will significantly increase capacity and transform the experience of the patients who will be treated here.”
Work is underway to build the new emergency department at Dorset County Hospital
“Our local hospital deserves the best”
Kate Adie, who lives near Dorchester, said:
“Dorset County Hospital is my local hospital, and it is a privilege to be involved in this appeal – in my work I have seen for myself the need for emergency and critical care, and our local hospital deserves the best.
“Throughout my career I’ve witnessed at first hand the extraordinary work of emergency and critical care teams around the globe, and I am very aware and thankful that our NHS provides an exceptional service and is there for all of us when we need it.
“The opportunity to help make a difference now to these vital services for our local community is highly motivating and I hope we can bring together the community in Swanage and Purbeck in support of our appeal.”
Kate Adie famously reported from Tiananmen Square in China where protesting students were fired on in 1989
Shot at and injured on several occasions
Kate’s reputation for uncompromising straight talking and fearless journalism saw her report from Tripoli, Tiananmen Square, Belfast and Bosnia over the years, being shot at and injured on several occasions.
Her insight into the world of frontline journalism and the challenges of war reporting in the digital age has continued, as she presents the BBC Radio 4 flagship programme From Our Own Correspondent.
Her career began as a station assistant at BBC Radio Durham followed by Radio Bristol, where her role as a farming producer took her to Dorset for the first time.
Today she calls Dorset her little piece of heaven and her home, where she lives with a dog called Muesli, but it is a world apart from the war zones from which she reported as chief news correspondent for BBC News between 1989 and 2003.
Twenty years after the riots, Kate returned to Tiananmen Square where in 1989 she was grazed by a bullet which killed the man next to her
Rocket grenade hit her hotel in Beirut
While working for BBC news crews in the south, she was tipped off about a double murder in Brighton, but although she and her crew captured great footage, it landed her in trouble with her news editor in Southampton, who was expecting her to cover a local embroidery exhibition.
Her big break as duty reporter came in May 1980, during the Iranian embassy siege. Her coverage was groundbreaking but did not make her an instant star – instead her mission the next day was to interview a football pools winner.
The event at The Mowlem will hear from Kate about her life and career – she was abandoned as a baby after being born partially deaf, which she only discovered when a rocket grenade hit her hotel balcony in Beirut, but says she feels she has been lucky in life.
Kate Adie’s hotel balcony in Beirut was hit by a missile as she reported from the frontline
“We do live in a lucky country”
Kate Adie said:
“All the ills in the world are outweighed by the wonderful places in it and our wonderful planet. In every country you see things that are worthwhile and people who are worthwhile and reasons why you would go back.
“There might be clouds in the sky, but think where you live! We have democracy, healthcare, an educated population and a sense of justice.
“Compared to other places in the world, we do live in a lucky country. We’ve got vast resources of people and a lovely land. It’s worth making the effort for, every day!
“I had a happy, safe, wonderful childhood. If we do anything in this world, we make it good for children, with kindness, protection and love, so that they can better cope with difficulties that come their way.”
Army veterans from Lulworth met Kate and her dog on March 2025 while preparing for a fundraising mission of their own
“I don’t miss reporting at all”
Kate added:
“I don’t miss reporting at all. I had a wonderful time but I don’t miss fear, trepidation and violence.
“War, violence, cruelty, poverty and natural disasters do happen and reporters cover the news, but they are now under immense pressure.
“The internet is straining their ability – there are straight lies and propaganda that reporters have to sift through and the only way to see through this is to be there first hand.”
Kate is active in many Dorset charities, becoming president of the county’s Campaign for the Protection of Rural England branch in 2023
“Violence done in the dark gets more evil”
She added:
“People don’t want to see war on TV anymore, but it’s still necessary. Violence done in the dark gets more evil. It has to be discussed by others to find a way to stop it. You can’t let things this dark go unreported.
“We’ve had a good 300 years of newspaper journalism, radio and TV, and we’ve learnt how to regulate it all.
“Now we just need to treat owners of social media platforms as publishers, too, to get rid of the lies, the alarmist and downright appalling stuff.”
Further information
- Tickets for An Evening with Kate Adie are available on The Mowlem’s website.
- Find out more about the Dorset County Hospital Charity
