As MP's prepared to discuss the latest in a series of heated debates on the Mental Health Bill, Sharon spent time talking to people at a secure unit for psychiatric patients who have committed crimes. Click here to read the piece on Mental Health Bill.

As the Africa Commission met, Sharon and a team of broadcasters from BBC Radio Five Live travelled to a large South African township outside Durban, called Umlazi. The community is typical of many in the country, with a one-in-five incidence of HIV and AIDS. To compliment her live broadcasts from the township, Sharon was asked to write an online diary. The team's work was nominated for a Sony Radio Academy Award. Click here to read the Umlazi diary which accompanied live broadcasts on Five Live, Radio Four and the BBC World Service...

The Africa Commission was not the easiest subject to cover... focusing on AIDS in a single township outside Durban, took listeners to the heart of the story, giving personal purchase on one of the major problems affecting the continent. It provided that level of commitment and follow-through which listeners often miss when the news machine moves on to the next disaster.

Sony Radio Academy Award Judges

The government negotiated a new contract for GP's in 2004. The end result meant that family doctors would no longer be legally or financially responsible for their patients' care outside surgery hours. For years doctors had worked on-call when their patients were sick overnight. Now, a new contract loomed with more work-life balance. Had the government thought through what the effects might be? Before anyone else had examined the consequences, Sharon Alcock decided to carry out a survey of thousands of GP's to find out about their plans for the Today Programme and BBC News. She discovered the effect was going to be dramatic. It led to the changes we now know. Out of hours GP's for online.

The comments of a team of researchers that the governments adopted vaccine for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) could be linked to autism in children caused massive alarm amongst parents. The debate continues to this day. Sharon Alcock was one of the national health correspondents called to Dr Andrew Wakefield's press conference on that first day. She covered the ins and outs of the story intensively for the many months to come - and won one of her Sony Awards for a series on this subject.

“The judges agreed that this was a fine piece of original coverage. In particular, the feature on MMR - taking a couple through the week seeking advice and information on which to base their decision whether or not to give their child the MMR vaccine - was compelling, well informed, balanced and got to the heart of a terrible dilemma for parents.”

'The News Output Award' 2003 - Silver, Sony Radio Academy.

The British Medical Journal asked Sharon to write about an angle she had avoided on air - her own position as a mother. MMR for BMJ.

The British Medical Journal asked Sharon to write about her investigations into the numbers of doctors coming to Britain from India, Pakistan and other parts of the Indian sub-continent who train for and sit a medical certificate allowing them to work as doctors in Britain. Sharon discovered that thousands of doctors are lured to the UK under the mis-apprehension that there will be work, but that huge numbers end up unemployed and out of pocket. Overseas doctors in the British Medical Journal.

In 2005 women with an aggressive form of breast cancer anticipated the availability of the drug Herceptin on the NHS. But Herceptin wasn't licensed for NHS use and wouldn't be for many months. Cancer clinicians heatedly discussed its true efficacy. Some recommended that their patients' treatment be paid for by the local authorities. But it wasn't that simple... Sharon Alcock took one patient to talk to some of the people involved in deciding her fate. (Herceptin for BBC Online: Link 1/ Link 2)

Herceptin was licensed for use on the NHS in April of 2006. Alison Poole's PCT later relented and decided to pay for her NHS treatment with Herceptin before the license ruling.