Simon Thomas

Simon Thomas has been a highly successful broadcaster for the over 20 years and a moving and inspiring speaker on mental health and dealing with bereavement.

Simon Thomas began his career in 1999 when he became the 27th presenter on the BBC’s flagship Children’s show Blue Peter. During his 6 years presenting the show he experienced a number of highlights ranging from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to sky diving with the RAF Falcons, racing Darren Campbell, Frankie Fredericks and Jason Gardner over 60 metres at an International Indoor Athletics Meeting and presented Her Majesty the Queen with a gold Blue Peter badge.

He also co-hosted CBBC’s Proms in the Park in Hyde Park with Matt Baker and Fearne Cotton in 2002 and 2003.

After leaving Blue Peter in 2005, Simon joined Sky Sports. For eight years he was one of the faces of Sky Sports News.  Along with being a regular presenter on the Afternoon Report with Georgie Thompson and Kirsty Gallacher, Simon also presented Sky Sports News’s World Cup Report in Cape Town in 2010, anchored their coverage of the 2010 Ryder Cup and the 2010-11 Ashes Series in Australia. He also played a big part in the presenting team at the Olympic Games in London in 2012 and in early 2013 Simon presented the live launch of the FA 150th Anniversary at the Connaught Rooms in London.

Simon’s versatility as a presenter also saw him become the first ever presenter of Sky Sports’ Cricket AM programme in May 2006, where he presented the Saturday morning summer magazine show for four years alongside Anita Rani and then Sarah-Jane Mee.

Simon went on to become the lead presenter for Sky Sport’s Football League coverage before going on to present the Premier League for Sky at the start of the 2016-17 season.

Away from the camera, Simon is equally at home with live events. At London 2012 he hosted the Olympic Stadium morning warm up show and post show in front of 80,000 people. He also compared the ECB Twenty20 Cup in 2005, as well as hosting a number of end of season dinners for clubs including Chelsea, Norwich City and Wolverhampton Wanderers. He has also hosted a number of awards ceremonies, including the Football League Awards.​

In 2017 Simon experienced a life changing event when his wife Gemma died very suddenly, just three days after being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Four months later he took the hard decision to leave Sky Sports and devote his time to looking after his son Ethan. Since then Simon has become President of Blood Cancer UK, has written his first book – ‘Love Interrupted’ on his journey through grief, and has written a number of Blogs on his site A Grief Shared. To date his moving posts on grief, mental health and solo parenting have been read by over a million people.

Simon has his own Podcast series with Global called ‘Life Interrupted.’ In the first series he spoke to the likes of Fearne Cotton, Andrea Corr and Billy Billingham and is currently recording series two. In 2019  Simon presented a series of films for ITV’s This Morning on mental health and wellbeing called ‘Pursuits of Happiness.’

SPEAKING TOPICS

Simon Thomas has been the keynote speaker for a number of different companies, organisations and charities, and has spoken largely on mental health; but also grief, child bereavement and life insurance.

Companies Simon has spoken at include: Government Cabinet Office, Zurich Insurance, Property Investor Partnership, Linklaters LLP, Unilever, Morgan Stanley, Smart Pension Wellbeing Festival, Women’s Institute, Babcock Seminar on Child Bereavement, RSM -Time to Talk day and Nomad Foods.

Simon is also available to host awards events and conferences.