Photography brings fame in India for Lesley

A HUCKNALL-born woman whose skills behind a camera have brought her fame in India is currently back in this country.

A photographic portrayal by Lesley Saunders (54) of The ‘Real’ Women of India has made a huge impact on the sub-continent.

International broadcaster and raconteur Shaun Rana has described Lesley as an “enigmatic, elegant and charismatic lady”.

Her subjects included a woman in her 80s briskly scaling a hillock and a young bride-to-be with a pensive look.

An IT expert, Lesley was senior manager of an international conglomerate, with whom she worked for 17 years, but she is now looking to start up her own business in India.

She is planning exhibitions of her photos in London, Paris and New York to raise money for ROKO, a prominent breast-cancer awareness charity.

All this is an incredible turnaround from a ski-ing accident about six years ago which left Lesley close to death.

She suffered multiple blood-clots on her lungs, as well as pneumonia, and she was warned she should never fly again.

But even though Lesley now takes warfarin anticoagulant tablets, she refused to give up her love of travel and her ambitious attitude to life.

Lesley’s father is Tom Bell, who ran the well-known Hucknall taxi firm named after him. She lived on Knoll Avenue, Hucknall as a youngster and attended the town’s Holgate group of schools.

She and her husband, Mike (57), who works in the data cabling industry, lived on Babbacombe Way, Hucknall before moving to the Nottinghamshire village of Whatton.