Simon Thomas (presenter) 2:1 BA Hons degree in history. Having applied for the job three times, Thomas began presenting the children's programme "Blue Peter" on 8 January 1999 replacing the sacked presenter Richard Bacon. Previously he had worked as a runner at Children's BBC and the radio station LBC. During his tenure at "Blue Peter", he ran in the London Marathon twice and two Great North Runs, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc, completed over 40 solo sky dives with the Royal Air Force, presented a medal at the Commonwealth Games, ran in the 60 metres sprint at the Norwich Union Indoor Athletics
Prenatal cocaine exposure national scare" and were given less attention. Ideas about severe effects of PCE may have been more readily embraced because they "fit in with cultural stereotypes". At the time, the proposed mechanism by which cocaine harmed fetuses was as a stimulant—it was predicted that cocaine would disrupt normal development of parts of the brain that dealt with stimulation, resulting in problems like bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder. Reports from the mid-1980s to early 90s raised concerns about links between PCE and slowed growth, deformed limbs, defects of the kidneys and genitourinary and gastrointestinal systems, neurological damage, small head size,