06 Mar 2024 Awareness raising

TV baker Juliet Sear announced as Leukaemia UK Ambassador

Who’s Cooking Dinner 2023. ©Gareth Davies, Capture Comms Ltd

Leukaemia UK is excited to announce long-time supporter Juliet Sear as their latest celebrity Ambassador. Juliet, who has been an enthusiastic supporter of Leukaemia UK for several years now, wanted to become an Ambassador having seen first-hand the devastating toll leukaemia took on a close family friend.  

As the baker on ITV’s “This Morning”, Juliet frequently wows the nation with her fabulous recipes, having baked cakes for the likes of Kate Moss and Prince Harry. 

Juliet said:

“Leukaemia UK is such a wonderful charity. I’ve supported them for years, so I’m absolutely over the moon to be their newest Ambassador. It’s a real privilege.” 

The TV baker has seen first-hand the gruelling effects of leukaemia, after Oscar, the son of her childhood friend Phil Parry, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) aged three.  

“As a mother of three myself, it was heart-breaking to see what Oscar and his family had to go through. Oscar and my children are very close in age, so we were all shocked by his leukaemia diagnosis and how it affected his family,” Juliet remembers. 

Young Oscar had to fight leukaemia twice as a child and was eventually saved by ground-breaking research. His dad Phil, a close friend of Juliet since childhood, said that his son Oscar is a “living, breathing example of the impact fundraising can have, because he was saved by experimental treatments”. Emphasizing the incredible work of charities like Leukaemia UK, Phil said: “Others nowadays are saved by brand-new treatments which have been paid for by charitable donations.” 

Oscar is now in his 20s and, just like Juliet, passionate about all things cooking. He is a chef and even helped in the kitchen of Leukaemia UK’s annual fundraising event, “Who’s Cooking Dinner?”, in 2020. Juliet has also been an avid supporter of this stalwart of the fine dining calendar for years, saying: “Leukaemia UK’s Who’s Cooking Dinner is such a fun event. I am a big foodie myself, so seeing all these wonderful chefs coming together to raise urgently needed funds for leukaemia research is just wonderful. So, it’s even more exciting that I can now support this incredible charity as an Ambassador!” 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Leukaemia UK’s Who’s Cooking Dinner? – an event that has raised an incredible £7 million for leukaemia research since it first launched – and Juliet is looking forward to celebrating this milestone with an extra special event. 

Taking on her first task as a Leukaemia UK Ambassador, this Easter the TV baker is calling upon everyone to channel their inner Juliet Sear and join the Leukaemia UK Easter Bake Off. In the annual baking event, families, friends, and community groups are encouraged to host a bake sale, coffee and cake morning, or a baking competition to raise urgently needed funds for leukaemia research. 

Leukaemia UK’s Chief Executive, Fiona Hazell, said: “We are so happy to announce the wonderful Juliet Sear as our latest Ambassador. She is joining our lovely community of Ambassadors, including actor Dougray Scott, chef Francesco Mazzei, model Saffron Vadher, and children’s author Hannah Peckham. Together, we can raise awareness and stop leukaemia from devastating lives through ground-breaking research into kinder, more effective treatments.”