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November 8, 2010

Deidre Sanders completes 30 years as The Sun’s agony aunt

By Dominic wireposts

The Sun today devotes a two-page spread to marking 30 years with the paper for agony aunt Deidre Sanders.

Over that time it estimates that she has received six million letters, which she handles with the help of five trained counsellors and two administrators – The Sun reports.

She says that she is the only UK national newspaper agony aunt who still provides a full answering service for every letter she receives.

The Sun features reveals that Deidre’s team have produced more than 200 advice leaflets, in addition to her daily column, and it notes that Deidre has had her own problems – alcoholic parents and the pain of a miscarriage when she was 18.

During her Sun career Deidre has twice found herself reporting for the news pages: on holiday in Sri Lankwhen the Boxing Day tsunami hit in 2004 and after being caught in the chaos at Kings Cross station during the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.

The 65-year-old says she has no plans to retire: “As long as readers want my advice and want to read my column, I’ll be here.”

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