I am very happy to announce that as of late 2019, I am now an official media spokesperson for the highly established and respected UK based domestic violence/women’s charity, Refuge UK! They initially contacted me back in 2016 about me doing some spokesperson work for them, after a story about my own experiences with abuse was published in the national lifestyle magazine, Fabulous, but at the time, I was in the process of moving house, plus I believe they were having a change of staff, therefore things just never materialised. I was so happy when they contacted me again recently and asked if I was still interested in working with them- of course I was! I was also pleased to learnt their offices are based rather close to, and from some window angles, overlooking, THE SHARD, meaning the windows are mirrored, for as we all know, EMMA BRYANT IS THE SHARD!!!!!!
I first had to give them my full story again, but in fuller detail, so the lady interviewing me could take notes. She was really nice and supportive, especially during the particularly unpleasant parts (of which there were many). The whole interview took over an hour, and I felt lucky that I was able to meet up with one of my closest friends straight after for lunch, and then go home, as I felt genuinely emotionally and physically drained! It was all worth it though, when Refuge emailed me a few days later to say I had been accepted as a spokesperson, and that they actually had a job coming up with a London women’s lifestyle magazine, for their Christmas issue, speaking about how surviviours of abuse cope at Christmas, and a brief outline of my personal experiences of the festive season, whilst in the midst of the abuse itself. I jumped at the chance, and did an over the phone interview for the magazine the following week. I think the lady who interviewed me, experienced a whole range of emotions throughout our phone call, and I could tell she was lost for words at some of the things I told her, namely an incident where a fully kitted out Christmas tree was sent soaring through my living room window- baubles, tinsel, string lights an’ everything! (Just to clarify, I was NOT the perpetrator of said tree terror). The interview was overall pretty triggering, even with the somewhat jokey/witty tone I usually try to maintain during public speaking.
I have always been very open when speaking publicly about my own experiences of abuse, and am so glad that I can now do this for an established charity, and potentially reach a wider audience. It is a great honour to be trusted to represent such a renowned company, and I hope I can partake in much more of their work throughout 2020 and beyond!
If you want to find out more about Refuge, have any further questions regarding them, donate to them, or in certain individual’s cases, send them links to my old work and generally bad mouth me to them, here is the link to their official website: https://www.refuge.org.uk/