One of the most familiar voices to listeners of BBC Radio Suffolk is hanging up her microphone.

For more than a decade, Lesley Dolphin has presented BBC Radio Suffolk’s afternoon show, interviewing hundreds of guests and testing listeners' knowledge with the 'Dolphin’s Dart’ competition.

However, on Monday she announced that she would be leaving the show to spend more time with her parents and explore the county that she has called home for more than 30 years.

Her career dates back to the 1970s when she had her first taste of radio at university when she heard a lecture from a Radio Leeds presenter and begged to visit the station’s studios.

She joined the newly-launched BBC Radio Norfolk after moving back home to the county and spent four years there as a reporter and newsreader and then the first afternoon show presenter.

After taking a break to become a mum, she joined BBC Radio Suffolk when the station launched in 1990 and has since presented virtually every show before becoming a regular on the afternoon show from 2008, making her one of the best-known presenters in local radio.

Now living in Felixstowe, she felt she had ‘made the show her own in so many ways,’ adding that it had one of the best listener figures among afternoon shows across England.

Her fundraising exploits also became well-known and she helped to raise £3m for children’s charity East Anglia Children’s Hospices (EACH) by climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa. She also led a campaign which trained hundreds of people to become CPR lifesavers in Suffolk.

She said: “I am not being forced to make the decision. It is just the right time. I have had a lovely career and really loved what I have done but I really just want to enjoy the county.

“I very often say on my programme that Suffolk is such a fantastic place and I just don’t get the chance to see it. So it is just a chance to get out and enjoy Suffolk and do things that I haven’t been able to do for the last 10 or 12 years.”

However, although she has announced her departure, she is not due to leave immediately and will present her last afternoon show in July.

“I shall miss the listeners because I do feel like I have made a huge number of friends on the show. I do feel like I am spending the afternoon with friends and I will miss my colleagues as well,” she added.

Editor Peter Cook said: “Lesley has been a terrific ambassador for the BBC. Over the years she has helped with the High Sherriff Awards, run a CPR campaign and walked the length of the Suffolk coast to raise money for a Suffolk Family Carers bus.

"Lesley has been a person who wears her heart on her sleeve when it comes to Suffolk and brings that to air every day; her show has been built around her passions and it shines through every time she’s on the radio.”