You probably don’t picture her hosting a giant bear auction, either. 

But that is exactly what she will be doing when ellenor’s Dartford We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Art Trail comes to its grand finale next month. 

And Numi is already thinking about the important things. 

Which bear would she bid for? What would she wear? 

And, given that she has never actually bid at an auction before, just how competitive is she likely to become? 

“I’m slightly worried about how competitive I might get,” she admits. 

It could be a very interesting evening. 

Numi is one half of KMFM’s Breakfast Show, alongside Rob Wills, where the pair spend their mornings playing music, making each other laugh and, in Numi’s words, “soundtracking” the start of people’s day. 

She describes herself as passionate, warm and bubbly. She loves music, loves making people laugh and, unsurprisingly for someone working in radio, is a big chatter. 

Her ideal soundtrack? Taylor Swift. “Cruel Summer” is her favourite. 

But there is another side to Numi that listeners might not expect. She has a PhD in robotics. 

She studied engineering at university and initially saw student radio as something fun to do on the side. She had a much more conventional career path in mind – to become a woman in STEM. 

Then she discovered radio. 

“I just completely fell in love with it,” she says. 

It gave her a creative outlet she hadn’t found anywhere else, combining her love of music with her love of connecting with people. 

“I’m a big chatter.” 

And that was that. 

She decided to see if she could make a career out of it. KMFM gave her the opportunity and, several years later, she is still there, now broadcasting to people across Kent every weekday morning. 

For Numi, that local connection is what makes the station special. 

KMFM is one of the last independent commercial local stations in the country, and Numi says its strength is in talking about what is happening on its listeners’ doorstep. 

“The travel is your journey to work. It’s the street names that you know. It’s the roadworks that have been messing up your school run every day. It’s the events that you want to go to at the weekend.” 

It is that sense of community that also drew her to ellenor. 

She first heard about the charity through KMFM’s Give A Gift toy appeal, before becoming involved with the Twilight Walk. But it was visiting ellenor in Gravesend, meeting staff and volunteers and seeing the care being provided that really changed her understanding of hospice care. 

She saw the care provided to patients, but also the support available to families including therapy and counselling and other forms of support to help people cope with the impact of serious illness. 

“From the first moment you meet people, it’s clear how much they care about what they do, whether they’re a volunteer or a paid member of staff,” she says. 

There was one thing, though, that she hadn’t realised. 

“I didn’t realise that 90% of ellenor’s care is delivered in people’s homes.” 

So when she heard about the Dartford We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Art Trail, the idea immediately appealed. 

It was free, brought art into the community and gave families something they could enjoy together during the holidays. It also meant that people who might not otherwise have come across ellenor had the chance to find out more about what the charity does. 

And then there were the bears. 

Numi hasn’t seen every one of them in person, but she has been keeping an eye on the designs. The KMFM Music Bear is an obvious favourite. She also likes Starry Night and Solar Bear. But there is one she might struggle to resist. Bear in Bloom. 

“You never have to buy a bunch of flowers again,” she says. 

Numi thinks she could probably fit Bear in Bloom on her balcony. The only problem? She wouldn’t be able to use the balcony anymore. 

For now, though, the bears aren’t going anywhere. 

The Farewell Weekend will bring them together at Bluewater for one final weekend before they find new homes and on 1 October, the Big Bears will go under the hammer to raise money for ellenor. 

Numi will be there to help set the scene and get everyone in the mood to bid. 

The actual auction will be led by auctioneer Catherine Southon, the familiar face from BBC’s Flog It! while Numi’s job is to get the crowd excited and ready to bid.  

“We’ve got to drum up the excitement. We’ve got to make those bears look as good as possible.” 

She has one more challenge to deal with first. 

Her outfit. 

“I’ve got a blue velvet suit,” she says. 

It sounds like a strong choice. 

Although, as Numi points out, she will be competing with a disco ball bear. 

“If I’ve got to compete with disco ball bears, it’s going to have to look good.” 

Numi has had some unusual mornings. There was the time she and Rob created a Tinder profile for her live on air, with listeners choosing her photographs and writing her profile. The account, she reveals, is still live. 

“I haven’t used it,” she says. “So it’s probably still floating around for some people.” 

Then there was the day they presented the Breakfast Show from a moving double-decker bus travelling along the Thanet coastline. Ten or 15 years ago, she says, something like that would have seemed impossible. Now? 

“It’s just another day in the office.” 

So perhaps a giant bear auction isn’t such a strange next step after all. 

And while Numi may be there to get the crowd excited, the reason behind the evening is much bigger than the bears themselves. 

The money raised from the auction will help ellenor continue to be there for local people and their families when they need specialist hospice care and support – at home, in the hospice and across the community. 

For Numi, that is what makes being part of the finale so special. She has gone from knowing ellenor through KMFM to seeing for herself what the charity does,  and discovering that hospice care is about much more than she had realised. 

She has seen the care provided at ellenor but also learned that most of its specialist care is delivered in people’s homes, supporting patients and their families where they live. 

Now she is helping bring the Bear Hunt to its grand finale. 

She has her eye on Bear in Bloom. She has never bid at an auction before. This could get interesting.