Jill Morrell

Last updated

Jill Morrell
Born1957 (age 66–67)
NationalityBritish
Alma mater University of Hull
Occupation(s)Charity worker, former journalist
Organizations
Notable work Some Other Rainbow (1993)
Partner John McCarthy (until 1994)

Jill Morrell (born 1957) is a British charity worker and former journalist. She came to the public eye following the kidnapping of her boyfriend John McCarthy, in 1985. Morrell was a tireless and effective campaigner for McCarthy's release from captors who held him in Lebanon for more than 5 years.

Morrell was raised in Yorkshire, and is a graduate of the University of Hull. She met McCarthy while they were both working as journalists. They had been in a relationship for only a short time prior to McCarthy's abduction. She kept McCarthy's name in the public domain with a campaign to free him, called "Friends of John McCarthy" (FOJM). In 2009, she commented "I have found it hard to view the Friends of John McCarthy campaign with any real sense of personal achievement." [1]

After McCarthy's release on 8 August 1991, the couple remained together until 1994, and wrote a joint memoir, Some Other Rainbow , but they parted amicably. McCarthy subsequently met BBC photographer Anna Ottewill, and they married in April 1999. [2]

Morrell worked for charity Cancerbackup (now Macmillan Cancer Support) as their Policy and Public Affairs Manager. She later held the role of Head of Public Affairs with the British Lung Foundation. [3]

Published works

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<i>Some Other Rainbow</i>

Some Other Rainbow is a joint memoir written by John McCarthy and Jill Morrell and first published by Bantam Press in 1993. It deals in separate chapters with the individual and parallel experiences of McCarthy and Morrell, during McCarthy's captivity in the Lebanon, which lasted from 17 April 1986 until 8 August 1991.

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References

  1. ↑ "Jill Morrell speaks of shadow cast on life by McCarthy ordeal". The Herald. Glasgow. 4 April 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  2. ↑ Former hostage McCarthy weds in private, BBC News , 19 April 1999. Retrieved 24 November 2007.
  3. ↑ Matthew Colledge (31 October 2008). "Asbestos – the hidden killer". Somerset County Gazette. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
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