Protect and Prevail

By Elliott West

“Close your eyes and picture this”.

Marie Hanson MBE.

Introduction

As many of you are aware I usually write on sports-related items, predominantly snooker. However, sometimes a story in the news touches my heart and I feel the need to share this story with others. I love to indulge in current affairs and politics and by chance, I was watching Sky News this morning and came across a very inspirational interview with Marie Hanson, the founder of the charity STORM (Support, Trust, Opportunity, Rebuilding, and Motivation) established in Battersea, South London in 2004. A charity that has one simple aim – to help single mothers who need support. A group that particularly focuses on members of the local population within the Black Ethnic Minority and hard-to-engage groups.

The aim of the charity STORM is to help abused women and single mothers gain the confidence and support they need to find their way into the workforce, help people dependent on benefits for years, access the education and support necessary to get back to work, steer young people away from knife and gun crime by giving them the motivation and support to change their lives and help create community cohesion. All valued targets so these members of the community can reach their full potential in life.

An Inspiration

Marie Hanson is a former Conservative councillor for Queenstown, a ward of Wandsworth, a borough that has been dubbed ‘The Brighter Borough’. Elected in 2014, she considers this achievement to be one of her proudest moments. As an elected councillor she was successful in getting several families into accommodation, petitioning the P5 bus route, and successfully bringing new opportunities to local residents. She also campaigned to help residents on the Queenstown Estate with a mould problem in the flats and helped keep the Wandsworth Community Centre out of private hands.

A resident of Wandsworth since 2011, Marie is a champion of her community and believes the local area is an ideal place to bring up children, proven by the fact that her five children and grandchildren live here. She has also been recognised for her tireless campaigning by being awarded an MBE for services to young people and survivors of abuse. She believes vehemently in what she does, largely because she has experienced some of the issues involved. A struggling single mother and someone who suffered domestic and sexual abuse from her ex-partner, becoming homeless and having to live in a car with her five children.

Marie is someone who never gave up and used her inner spirit to drive her towards not only succeeding in life despite the terrible things she experienced and went on to want to help people in similar situations. I don’t say this often but these people are the true heroes. She had the courage to escape her abusive ex-partner, a man who dangled one of her daughters out of the window, which made her feel so worthless that she had to think before she said something to him. She became emotionless. An abuser, guilty of the most horrendous crimes including sexually abusing one of Marie’s daughters.

Her ex-partner was taken to court and sentenced to ten years in prison. The presiding judge described it as the worst case of grooming that he had ever seen. Having escaped this abuse, Marie spent some time in a refuge with her children, pregnant at the time with her sixth child. She went on to get her own place and her daughter became a chef. Depressed at the time after this horrendous experience, Marie decided to self-medicate, creating affirmation notes around the house to inspire her with words such as ‘You are beautiful’, ‘There’s nothing you can’t do’, and ‘You are more than a conqueror’. These filled her house with notes that went from her fridge to her knickers drawer.