#SheInspiredMe #IWD2022

I am not the first – or last – to say that I am totally inspired by my mum.

Margaret Jean had humble beginnings and a highly complex family background. This made her determined to work and fight hard for a stable and loving home life. She married young and had three daughters in quick succession before leaving her extended family in North London to move to the shiny new town of Stevenage where she knew no one but from where she started to build a new life for her family.

She inspires me because she did this when she was so young with no strong role models who could show her how or offer any kind of support. My dad worked two jobs and she worked as well as caring for us and doing the best for her daughters. She taught us how to work hard, how to stand up for ourselves, to believe in ourselves and how to love each other. She gave us feminism and we gave that to our own daughters.

The reason this inspires me is because she had to work it out one step at a time and she never gave up. It meant encouraging me to stand on my own two feet and be the first person in our family to go onto further education. It meant enrolling at night school in something she didn’t want to study to sit beside my sister and support her learning. It meant supporting my baby sister through and out of a terrible relationship. And more …

It wasn’t ever easy and there was so much learning on the way but she never stops fighting even today. When my dad died we taught her how to use a mobile (she is now prolific on What’s App, Facebook, Insta etc!) before packing her off to Nepal to volunteer for three months in an orphanage. She now 81 and still adventuring as she builds a house and shows her grandchildren the way to love life.

However the most inspiring thing is the extraordinary love that she gives and inspires in everyone who meets her. Not all girls and women are as lucky as we. GFS has an army of volunteers who are role models for the girls, can inspire them to be proud of who they are, ambitious and brave. So I am donating to GFS so that more girls have role models like my mum in their lives. For just one week we have the chance to double every donation by being part of The Big Give. We would love your support in shouting about who inspired you and making a donation in her name here: ?www.girlsfriendlysociety.org.uk/tbg