Sarah Kennedy breaks down on air

Veteran presenter Sarah Kennedy broke down while reading a story about a British soldier's heroics during her BBC Radio 2 show.

The piece, featured in Kennedy's newspaper review, was about Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, who smothered a grenade with his own body to save his colleagues. Having miraculously survived the explosion, Croucher is to be awarded the George Cross for bravery.

"A Royal Marine... ah... You know, you sometimes see youths and you think, 'They’re exactly the same ages'," Kennedy began early on Wednesday morning, struggling to get her words out.

"And this man, what a brave man, Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, will become part of a very select group of 20 living recipients of the George Cross.

"What did he do? He hand-grenaded part of a Taliban booby-trap rolled among the Marines during an operation in Afghanistan, and Croucher had less than seven seconds to make up his mind about whether to risk sacrificing his own life to save his friends."

Kennedy was audibly crying but completed the item, saying: "I feel quite tearful about it. He didn’t hesitate, he chose to save his colleagues and, well, good man, good man."