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Blind girl with tumour realises radio show 'dream'

Justin Dealey/BBC Betsy Griffin is in the BBC 3CR radio studio sitting in a chair in front of the purple microphone. She is smiling at the camera and is wearing a sparkly black top.Justin Dealey/BBC
Betsy Griffin said she had always loved music from the '50s and '60s

An 11-year-old girl who is blind and has a brain tumour said she had fulfilled her "dream" of presenting her own radio show.

Betsy Griffin, from Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, was diagnosed with the tumour when she was two.

Earlier this year she won the BBC Three Counties Radio (3CR) Make a Difference bravery award for her YouTube channel, Betsy's Positive Videos.

On Sunday, the station let her loose on the airwaves with Betsy presenting her own 1950s and '60s rock'n'roll and country show - music which she said had always been close to her heart.

Betsy was diagnosed with an optic nerve glioma which affected her sight and she is completely blind, her father Stuart Griffin said.

The benign tumour did spread, meaning she underwent surgeries and continues to receive treatment, but her condition is stable.

When Betsy began making her videos, she said the intention had been to keep everything "nice and positive... and uplifting".

Her dad described Betsy as "inspirational".

Earlier this year, Betsy told BBC 3CR presenter Justin Dealey that she loved rock'n'roll from the 1950s and it was one of her dreams to become a radio presenter.

Offered the chance to present her own show, she said it would be "an absolute privilege".

Justin Dealey/BBC Betsy is sitting in a chair in a radio studio with her father kneeling beside her. They are both smiling at the camera. Betsy is wearing a sparkly black top and her father is wearing spectacles and a Christmas jumper with reindeer and Christmas trees on itJustin Dealey/BBC
Betsy and her dad came to the studio so she could present her show

She opened her show on Sunday with the words: "Hi everybody, it is me, Betsy Griffin. I'm going to start with an absolute belter, here's Roly Poly by Willie Nelson. Hit it!"

During the 30-minute set, she played tracks by artists including Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Bill Haley & His Comets, interspersed with snippets about the singers or the songs.

After playing The Big Bopper's Chantilly Lace, she recalled how one of her distant cousins had sung that song to her "after one of my brain surgeries and it really did cheer me up so much".

'I can't help but be inspired by Betsy'

Speaking after the show, she said: "It was kind of like second nature. I've dreamed of this... but honestly, you've made a girl's dream come true."

Both Betsy and her dad agreed she was a little obsessed with Nelson's music, but Mr Griffin said: "Well, it could be worse.

"Most 11-year-olds are listening to pop music so I guess I've dodged a bullet in that respect."

Betsy piped up: "Yes, it could be AC/DC."

Having presented her own show on radio, she now said her ambition was to meet her idol Nelson in person.

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