BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award is an award given annually as part of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony each December. The award is given "for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity", and the winner is selected by BBC Sport. The award is named after the BBC sports presenter Helen Rollason, who died in August 1999 at the age of 43 after suffering from cancer for two years. Helen Rollason was the first female presenter of "Grandstand". After being diagnosed with cancer, she
Geoffrey Smith (radio presenter) the presenter of "JRR". A new series hosted by Smith, "Geoffrey Smith's Jazz", began hours after Shipton's first "JRR". Geoffrey Smith (radio presenter) Geoffrey Smith (born 1943, Michigan) is a British-based American radio presenter, author and former jazz percussionist. Smith was the regular presenter of BBC Radio 3's "Jazz Record Requests" for over twenty years and has also presented other programmes on the network. Smith's father was a pianist who also played banjo in his local dance-band in Detroit. Smith's own active jazz career ended in 1969, discouraged by the rise of rock music. In 1973 he came to Britain