About paula
The People Who Believed in Me
The biggest turning points in our lives are often not the places we go, but the people who see something in us before we see it ourselves
"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
- Rudyard Kipling, Journalist
I was a shy university student with big dreams and little confidence.
I knew no-one in television. Everyone told me it was an industry where you had to know someone to get ahead.
I first met Helen Heldenmuth after reading in the evening newspaper about a Jewish television programme she was launching. I picked up the phone, introduced myself, and asked if I could come and see her. She said yes. That one word opened a door that changed my life. I couldn’t drive home fast enough.
I banged on the front door until my mother came running, convinced something terrible had happened. “I’m going to be on television!” I shouted.
Over thime Helen became far more than my first boss. She became my mentor, my teacher and, one of the most important people in my life. She believed in giving people opportunities, and she had an extraordinary ability to see potential in everyone, long before they themselves did. She believed journalism should be serious, but journalists didn’t always have to be. If we weren’t enjoying what we did, she’d ask, “What’s the point?”
Whenever an aspiring journalist reaches
out to me for advice, I always make time. It’s the best way I know to thank Helen for everything she did for me.
Every opportunity that defined my career can be traced back to the day one remarkable woman said yes to a nervous university student.
