Best selling author Jenny Colgan nervously took to the infamous black chair to raise money for Kidney Research UK on Celebrity Mastermind on Thursday (3 January 2018).
Despite her nerves she flew through her specialist subject questions on the Manhattan project to score 21 overall, following a series of general knowledge questions from John Humphries.
Jenny was up against BBC sports presenters Mike Bushell and Vassos Alexander as well as Stanley Johnson whose specialist subjects were Monty Python, Emil Zatopek and Sophocles.
Jenny received much praise over Twitter for winning the show, responding with a lovely picture of her and her family clutching the Mastermind trophy.
Tweeting: “I was unbelievably, vomit-level nervous so I speak absolute nonsense during the casual chat section. Quite insane. I don’t even like Victoria sponge. And I doubt it will make the edit, but...”
Jenny’s fee for appearing on the BBC show will be donated to Kidney Research UK.
She said: “Kidney disease affects people very close to me in my life, so for entirely selfish reasons I am delighted to support the charity that supports the scientists working so hard to cure it.”
The money will go towards funding research projects that will increase our understanding of kidney disease and to finding better treatments.
More than 1.8 million people UK wide have chronic kidney disease (CKD), with at least another million believed to also have it but remain undiagnosed.
Kidney Research UK is the leading charity committed to developing treatments, patient information and raising vital public awareness to help save lives.
Jenny Colgan is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including Christmas at the Cupcake Café and The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris, published by Sphere. Meet Me at the Cupcake Café won the 2012 Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance and was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, as was Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop of Dreams, which won the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2013. Her latest, Little Beach Street Bakery, is also a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller and is her fastest selling ever.
Twitter: @jennycolgan