In April 2023, Mum and I gave evidence for the prosecution in a harrowing Crown Court case where one of the victims was a young autistic child. Heartbreakingly, the child had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of an adult they trusted. The case has had a huge emotional impact on us both. 

While the perpetrator has been found guilty of the crime and will spend just a few months in prison, it’s the child and their family that will have to deal with the consequences for years to come. For children who are victims of crime, it is critical that they are able to access emotional support and counselling as soon as possible.

Embrace Child Victims of Crime is the only national children’s charity that provides vital support services to all young crime victims and their immediate families to help them recover from their trauma, rebuild their lives, and reach their full potential. Everything they do aims to help children, young people, and their families recover from their experiences of crime.

Embrace provide face-to-face emotional support and counselling in schools to children who’ve witnessed or been victims of crime. They provide telephone and online emotional support to help young people understand their feelings and rebuild their self confidence and self esteem. 

They give practical support to help families, whose lives have been devastated by crime, get back on their feet. Even providing everyday essentials from food and clothing vouchers to books, toys, mobile phones and tablets. They tailor their support to meet the needs of every child and family who come to them.

Embrace help families affected by all crimes including:

• Domestic violence
• Sexual abuse
• Neglect and child abuse
• Exploitation
• Violence and other serious crime
• The death of a parent, brother, sister or other
  close family member killed by a serious crime.

I am therefore thrilled to say I have joined Team Embrace and will be running my first Marathon in London in April 2024 to raise much needed funds to support the Charity. Over the next few months, I will be posting online about my journey to London 2024, training hard, and raising awareness and funds in any way I can to support this amazing organisation.  

If you can help me to help Embrace, every pound we raise will help to provide vital emotional and practical support to families whose lives have been torn apart by crime. Together we can help them understand their feelings and begin their journey to recovery.

• £500 could buy a course of 1-2-1 counselling sessions for a teenager whose life has been knocked off course by serious crime.
• £250 could buy a weekend away for a family who need to spend time together to kick-start the healing process. Domestic violence can and does rip families apart.
• £100 could buy a new school uniform and sports kit for a child who has had to change schools because of bullies.
• £50 could buy a tablet for a child to enable them to do their homework online. A practical solution when the family finances
  really can’t stretch.
• £25 could buy new toys for a child who had to flee their home to escape domestic violence. Why should young victims of crime
  miss out because of the actions of adults?

If you would like to help and maybe donate, it would make a huge difference to families whose lives have been torn apart by crime.

Thank you!

Simon