Writer • Speaker • Trainer • Facilitator
Andrya was around 24 years old when yet another assault on the street in London in the nineties made her try to stop going out alone after dark. However, this wasn’t always possible, especially in winter. She says that the walk home from work always felt more dangerous the further from the bus station towards …
Thursday 30th November, 2023 “My daughter is 16, she was recently coming back on a train at around 4pm and 3 drunk men spent 20 minutes loudly talking about how “all blondes are sluts” whilst staring at my daughter. She tried to ignore them but she was terrified they would get off at her stop. …
Wednesday 29th November, 2023 Like yesterday this survivor of sibling abuse has asked to remain anonymous: “When I was a child I used to tell lots of silly, pointless lies and at the time I was never sure why I did it. Now I realise It was because I had to lie everyday, to hide …
Tuesday 28th November, 2023 Anonymous told me: “There is an area of domestic abuse that doesn’t get nearly enough attention – sibling abuse, either sexual abuse, violence or verbal abuse. Every day of my life until my brother left home when I was 14, I was verbally abused by my brother. Until I was 12, …
Monday 27th November, 2023 My uncle started making sexualised comments towards me when I was a small child, asking me what I was wearing to bed when I was only ten years old. As my parents are deaf they wouldn’t have heard his comments to me, he took full advantage of this, I always felt …
Sunday 26th November, 2023 You might be wondering why Rachel, yesterday, didn’t tell a teacher about the boy harassing her. Well Deborah did…. I stood with my head bowed and shoulders hunched.I kept my back to the wall.Maybe this time I’d get into class before he started.But no.His hand on my arm as I try …
Saturday 25th November, 2023 Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women and the first of #16days of activism to end gender based violence. For each of the 16 days I will be giving a voice to women and girls from the U.K. to tell their story about how gender based …
Sunday 19th November 2023 Today is international men’s day so I thought it was a good opportunity to celebrate non-toxic masculinity and what makes those men so bloody great. There are loads of wonderful men in my life; my sons, my marvellous boyfriend, my nephew, brother-in-law, my dad and a handful of really great friends. …
Those of us of a certain age, before the days of games consoles, traffic and modern parental worry, will remember long hot summers where we were booted out the front door after breakfast and didn’t return home until the street lights came on. Those glorious days of childhood, full of knock-a-door run and making prank …
“Truth hurts” a phrase often used to justify unkind words and a lack of care around other people’s feelings. Those of us of a religious bent may even try to spiritualise this notion of “only being honest” as “speaking the truth in love” But let’s face it, as our home secretary has shown us recently, …