Channel 4 star, 50, missing as police grow 'increasingly concerned for welfare'

An urgent appeal has been launched by Northumbria Police after a Channel 4 TV star was reported missing. Katherine Watson, better known as Katie, who featured in the series Geordie Hospital, was last seen in the Newcastle area on Thursday afternoon.

The 50 year old former army officer was wearing a green hat, dark trousers, a dark hooded top and carrying a backpack. She is recognisable by several tattoos on her arms and a military tattoo on her chest.

Reverend Captain Katie Watson is known for her role as a chaplain in Geordie Hospital, a Channel 4 programme that documents the daily lives of NHS workers at Newcastle Hospitals. A spokesperson for the police force expressed growing concern for her welfare, describing her as a white woman, around 5ft 6ins tall, of slim build, with short light grey hair.

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Katie joined the army at 18 in 1992, starting her training at the Army Women's Training Centre in Guilford and then advancing to the Royal Military Police trade training in Chichester. Through the 1990s, she bravely completed tours of duty in Bosnia and Croatia, later serving as a searcher Corporal in Northern Ireland.

She transitioned from military to civilian life in 2002, training with Humberside Probation and taking on an NHS placement in Newcastle in 2007, where she ultimately became the head of chaplaincy in 2022, reports the Mirror.

Amidst the concern about her sudden disappearance, tributes began to surface on social media, including one from a retired colleague who posted: "For many of us at Newcastle Hospitals she was our rock during the worst parts of the Covid Pandemic."

Katie was also hailed as "one of the most wonderful women I have had the pleasure of knowing" by another.

Currently missing, Katherine has connections to Heaton and Jesmond in Newcastle. Anyone with information regarding Katherine's whereabouts is urged to get in touch with the Northumbria Police directly via social media, their live chat service or website report forms, or by calling 101, quoting the reference number NP-20240919-0717.