Sophie Raworth took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal the sad news that her dog Winnie had been hit by a car and died.
The BBC newsreader, 52, had only just appeared alongside cavapoo Winnie in the latest edition of Runner’s World UK – and shared a photo of the two of them from that article.
She captioned this: ‘Our gorgeous cavapoo puppy Winnie died on Friday night.
Tragic: Sophie Raworth took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal the sad news that her dog Winnie had been hit by a car and died
‘She was hit by a car, chasing squirrels. I never knew it was possible to love a pet that much. She was a total joy and my constant companion.
‘She was also my newest running buddy. She loved running. Utterly heartbroken.’
Sophie and her family got Winnie in March and had shared various sweet Instagram posts with her over lockdown, the summer and the autumn.
Several fellow celebs posted their condolences underneath the photo, with Susanna Reid posting: ‘Oh Sophie I am so sorry!’
The BBC newsreader wrote: ‘Our gorgeous cavapoo puppy Winnie died on Friday night’
Several fellow celebs posted their condolences underneath the photo, with Susanna Reid posting: ‘Oh Sophie I am so sorry!’
Piers Morgan shared an emoji, while Jenni Falconer echoed Susanna’s sentiments with: ‘Oh Sophie, I am so so sorry to hear this. Heartbreaking news.’
Sophie revealed recently that she has tackled her recent feelings of claustrophobia – brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic – by running, as a way of ‘silencing’ her brain.
She told Runner’s World UK: ‘It was the first story I’ve ever done where it wasn’t something you could escape. After all, it’s affecting your life as much as everybody else’s.
‘This has been like no story I’ve done before. At work we live and breathe it, there’s no escape whatsoever. I did start to feel really claustrophobic. Everybody’s world is just that bit smaller…
Sophie and her family got Winnie in March and had shared various sweet Instagram posts with her over lockdown, the summer and the autumn. Several fellow celebs posted their condolences underneath the photo, with Susanna Reid posting: ‘Oh Sophie I am so sorry!’
Terrible news: ‘She was hit by a car, chasing squirrels. I never knew it was possible to love a pet that much. She was a total joy and my constant companion. She was also my newest running buddy. She loved running. Utterly heartbroken,’ Sophie wrote
‘Running – particularly when I can go at the weekend and run free in the countryside – has become a real escape. I love it.
‘It makes me really happy. I can just run along, not see anyone, get lungfuls of fresh air and not think about anything at all. It just silences your brain.’
Sophie added that she has been taking ‘small steps’ in order to find her way, and said: ‘What I learned then – and recently, with Covid, I have tried to apply it to life more generally – is that when everything seems to be terribly overwhelming, just take small steps.’
‘Some of those sand dunes, I’d look up and think, there’s just no way I will get up there. But then I’d think, no, look down. Look at your feet. Take small steps. Just concentrate on them and you will get there eventually.’
On screen: Sophie revealed recently that she has tackled her recent feelings of claustrophobia – brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic – by running, as a way of ‘silencing’ her brain
Sophie also discussed how ‘bizarre’ it felt to run to work through the middle of Piccadily, which was empty, while trying to avoid public transport during the pandemic.
She said: ‘For around three weeks at the start of lockdown, I was working double shifts, on both the 6 and 10 o’clock news.
‘I wanted to stay off public transport as much as possible, so I started running to work. And that was the weirdest experience, utterly bizarre…I’d run, late morning, down the middle of Piccadilly and there were absolutely no cars.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Sophie talked about how she passing out during her first London Marathon in 2011.
Out now! Read the full Sophie Raworth interview in the January 2021 issue of Runner’s World UK
She said: ”I was absolutely fine until about 17 miles. But I hadn’t drunk enough. Suddenly my skin was getting goosebumps – this is odd, I thought, I’m really hot, but I’m cold. I came through the underpass up out onto The Embankment and swerved smack into a barrier.
‘Somebody said, “Go on Raworth! You can do it!” so I bounced back on to the course. And the next thing I knew, I woke up on a stretcher, surrounded by people, with an oxygen mask on. I didn’t know what was going on.
‘My brain just completely shut down. It was really, really frightening. I remember lying there, looking up at the sky and these nice wispy clouds and just thinking, “Oh my god, I’m dying’.”
Read the full Sophie Raworth interview in the January 2021 issue of Runner’s World UK, out now.