Rebecca Wilson, sports journalist and former TV presenter, has died at the age of 54 after a private battle with breast cancer.
Brisbane-born Wilson was the daughter of foreign correspondent Bruce Wilson and sister to Seven News sports presenter Jim Wilson. Her career started as a cadet journalist for the Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane. She was a sports journalist for Eyewitness News in Brisbane in the 1980s and was part of Network Ten‘s Olympic Games coverage in 1988.
She later went to ABC and developed a new profile as a co-host on the popular sports program The Fat. Wilson then followed co-host Tony Squires across to Seven for 110% Tony Squires. The pair, with Mikey Robins, also hosted the breakfast show on Sydney radio station Vega 95.3.
She covered the Olympic Games for the Seven Network in 2004 and 2008 and the Commonwealth Games for Foxtel in 2010, and was a sports commentator for Sunrise.
Wilson also was an award-winning journalist at the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph and appeared as a panellist on SportsNight With James Bracey on Sky News.
Husband John Hartigan and sons Tom and Will issued a joint statement to pay tribute: “Courage has always been a significant part of her DNA, no less in her desperate battle against her insidious disease.
“Rebecca kept knowledge of her illness a closely guarded secret.
“The majority of her friends, colleagues and indeed members of her family were unaware of the extent of her illness.
“She did so to limit their suffering.”
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Wikipedia
