After just over a year with Cheerleader, Rollason left the company to concentrate on her broadcasting career, and became a freelance reporter. She covered the 1987 World Student Games from Zagreb for Thames Television, and then presented the 1988 World Junior Athletics championships from Sudbury, Ontario for Channel 4. Later on in 1988, she provided coverage of that year's Summer Olympics, held in Seoul, for ITV. During the mid-1980s, she also joined the presenting team of the BBC children's news programme, "Newsround", with a view to increasing its sports coverage, and presented several features on topics such as gymnastics and female jockeys, as well as presenting "Newsround Extra", a show that covered a specific issue in more detail. One such programme was a report on the street children of Bogotá, a subject that deeply moved her and reduced her to tears on screen.