‘She was our rock’: NHS colleagues pay tribute to lifeless Channel 4 star

NHS colleagues have paid tribute to their Channel 4 Geordie Hospital star Katherine Watson who was found dead.

Watson, often known as Katie, became a recognisable community figure after appearing in the TV series Geordie Hospital, which focused on her work as a chaplain.

The 50-year-old ex-Army officer was missing from the Newcastle area since early Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday, police confirmed a body had been found in the Jesmond Dene area. Formal identification has yet to take place, but the body is believed to belong to Katherine.

Thousands, many of whom experienced her care and support at Newcastle Hospitals, expressed heartfelt messages praising her.

One retired doctor who worked with her at the hospital said on social media: ‘For many of us at Newcastle Hospitals she was our rock during the worst parts of the Covid pandemic.’ 

Another described her as ‘one of the most wonderful women I have had the pleasure of knowing’.

A Royal Military Police veteran who served in conflict zones such as the Balkans and Northern Ireland, said she charmed viewers across the North East and beyond on the television programme.

Both the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, and the Bishop of Berwick, the Right Reverend Mark Wroe, said they mourned Ms Watson’s death with a ‘deep feeling of loss’.

They said she lived her life with ‘service, compassion and humility’, whilst adding: ‘Our first thoughts are with her partner Emily and their children and all who knew and loved Katie.’

Superintendent Darren Adams, of Northumbria Police, said: ‘This is an incredibly sad outcome and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved ones at this​ difficult time.

‘We will continue to support them in any way we can and we ask that their privacy is respected.

‘Our thanks go to everyone who shared our appeals, provided information and supported our search for Katherine.’

Police also said her disappearance was ‘out of character’ and that they were ‘increasingly concerned for her welfare’.

After joining the Army at the age of 18 in 1992, Katherine completed basic training at the Army Women’s Training Centre in Guilford before travelling to undertake trade training with the Royal Military Police at Chichester. 

She completed two operational tours to Bosnia and Croatia during the genocide in 1994 and 1995 after which she was deployed as a Searcher Corporal in Northern Ireland. 

Having been selected to attend the commissioning course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Katie was commissioned in August 1997 and returned to the RMP. 

In 2002 she left the Army and trained with Humberside Probation service prior to starting ordination training. 

Katie joined the Newcastle team in 2007 on a long placement and in her own words ‘forgot to leave’ – she was appointed as head of chaplaincy for the trust in 2020. 

In the leadup to hear appearance on Geordie Hospital, Katherine told The Church of England: ‘Our department motto is ‘for everything else there’s a chaplain’.

‘We only have two things to offer, the gifts of time and presence, but we give them whole heartedly.

‘We provide chaplaincy 24/7, 365 days a year, and during the pandemic we never went away.’

As Head of Chaplaincy, she oversaw a team of 13 chaplains from a variety of religious beliefs – including Sikh, Hindu, Jewish, Pastoral, Muslim and Christian faiths – to provide spiritual support and comfort to patients. 

Ahead of the first series of Channel 4’s Geordie Hospital in 2022, she spoke movingly about the role of hospital chaplains.

She said: ‘We try to help in so many ways, from helping get hold of food bank vouchers for someone or baptising a baby which might be likely to die in a few hours, or moving a little one down to the chapel of rest – there really is so much in our remit.

‘This role isn’t for everyone, and people would need to spend time with us to understand the complexity and diversity of what we are called to do.

‘Healthcare Chaplaincy is a very specific calling and requires a great deal of resilience and life experience.

‘Once you have seen genocide first hand on the streets of a European country,’ she explained, ‘There is nothing left in the world that can faze you after that.

‘I have seen the worst of humanity and I have seen, and continue to see, the very best of it.’

The Channel 4 documentary was a six-part series, which began on 17 January, and followed the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s staff through a shift, featuring a cast from porters to surgeons, dental nurses to chaplains.

‘The show reflects some of what we do, but not all of it,’ she said.

‘So much of what we do is so sensitive and so very private to the people we serve that it was not possible to show all of what we do day in, day out.

‘The work we do is often very distressing and disturbing and that was not appropriate to show on television in this show.’

Work for the chaplaincy team includes everything from running a clothes bank and distributing foodbank vouchers, to involvement in police identification on the deceased, and sitting on ethics committees.

After 14 years in the job, there has never been a typical day. Katherine joked: ‘Write a plan and then rip it up!’

When asked what she enjoyed most about her work in an interview with the NHS in September 2023, Katherine said: ‘No two days are ever the same which means I never know what a shift is going to bring. 

‘I spend a lot of my time journeying alongside patients, relatives and the staff, be that on the wards or in the chapel of rest.

‘I have the privilege of being with people at the very best and the very worst of times.’ 

When asked what she does in her spare time, Katherine responded: ‘I qualified as an Inshore Rescue Boat Coxswain on leaving the military and enjoy ultra-distance trail running and fast packing. 

‘My partner of 16 years is a GP and also a priest and we have two children.’