Mike McCarthy (journalist)
Mike McCarthy is a journalist from the north of England. He started in commercial radio, studied journalism in Derbyshire, and worked for the BBC in Leeds and London before joining Sky in 2000. He later became Sky News’ bureau chief in Manchester and had previously presented for BBC Look North. He has won awards including the O2 journalism award in the North West and the BT Journalist of the Year award for the North East.
He has covered many major stories in the North of England, such as the Hillsborough disaster, the 2011 Manchester riots, and the 2015 floods in Cumbria, Lancashire, and York. He reported on the shooting of Manchester police officers Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes, the disappearance of Welsh schoolgirl April Jones, and the Manchester Arena bombing. He has also covered international events in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and Washington DC, and reported live from Athens during riots, the Boston Marathon bombings, and the Ottawa parliament attack in 2014. He occasionally lectures at universities.
In his personal life, McCarthy’s son Ross died by suicide in February 2021. He spoke about the pressures people faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and called for more mental health support for men. He teamed up with Steve Phillip to create hope for others facing similar heartbreak. They launched the Baton of Hope campaign, which was announced on BBC Breakfast after a meeting with Health Secretary Sajid Javid in June 2022. Baton Of Hope UK is a registered charity with McCarthy as founding director and spokesman, and it works to remove stigma around mental health in the workplace and to make suicide awareness, support, and prevention a workplace priority.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:19 (CET).