BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Lauren LeVernier, we're taking our summer break, so until we're back on air, we're showcasing

a few programs from our archive. As usual, the music's been shortened for rights reasons.

This week's guest is Baroness Sue Campbell, director of Women's Football at the Football

Association. You might have spotted her celebrating the lionesses victory at the Euros at Wembley

Stadium.

My Caster Away in 2020.

My Caster Away this week is Dame Sue Campbell. As director of Women's Football at the FA,

she's presided over a blossoming of the sport, with the lionesses making it to the semifinal

of last year's World Cup. But it was as a PE teacher on Manchester's Moss side that she

first witnessed the power of sport to transform lives, when she persuaded a hard-to-reach class

to start their own dance troupe. She's been inspiring and creating change ever since.

As sporty child herself, she loved football and played netball for England. Always a trailblazer,

she became the first female sports lecturer at Loftborough University, co-founded the Youth

Sports Trust and became the chair of UK Sport. Her reward would be to oversee the largest

British medal hall in living memory at the London 2012 Olympics. She was awarded her

Dame Hood in this year's New Year's honours.

She says, I believe in the power of sport. I felt it. It's in my heart and my head.

Kids sitting on that wayward edge are pulled back by this thing called sport. Perhaps

only music and sport can speak to kids in that way. Plenty of both to discuss today.

Dame Sue Campbell, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Thank you very much, my pleasure to be here.

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