23 local demonstrations against the NHS Reform Bill - Monday 19th @ 8pm!

The domestic violence charity Refuge could face closure this summer amid funding cuts of 50%, its chief executive has warned.

The charity, which supports 1,600 women and children, has seen funds decimated and is now “fighting for our very survival”, Sandra Horley said.

<b>She spoke out after reports that hundreds of domestic violence victims are being turned away from women’s refuges every day because of a lack of spaces.</b>

The Guardian revealed earlier this year that funding from local authorities to organisations working with domestic-violence and victims of sexual abuse fell from £7.8m in 2010-11 to £5.4m in the current financial year.

The cuts have prompted accusations that the coalition’s austerity measures are unfairly affecting women, and putting them directly at risk.

Horley said: “As CEO of Refuge for nearly three decades, I have never been so worried about our future.

“The domestic violence sector is being decimated. Refuge is stretched to breaking point. We are now fighting for our very survival, desperately trying to raise voluntary funds to keep our doors open. If we don’t do this by the summer, we may face closure.

“What kind of a world do we live in where women and children are beaten and funding for services to protect them is being withdrawn? Britain is in danger of returning to the days of Cathy Come Home when the vulnerable were forced to sleep rough. <b>Abused women could find themselves in a dilemma: stay at home and risk being killed or flee with their children to sleep on the streets.</b>”

Last year two refuges, looking after women from ethnic-minority backgrounds, were closed. Official estimates suggested there were 400,000 incidents of domestic violence in the UK last year.

<b>Around 230 women seeking refuge from abusive partners were turned away because of lack of spaces every day, campaigners said.</b>

suigenerisbeauty:

Body diversity of Olympic athletes.

Health comes in all shapes and sizes!

ghostnun:

misscoco:

I have to warn you. This is a serious post. And more than a bit sad. So if you’re, frankly, not in the mood, please feel free to stop reading now. Because there’s something in this month’s magazine (March issue, on sale tomorrow) that’s of huge importance to me. And this is a personal plea, from me, to you, to lend us your support. 

You may have seen recently that there seems to be an increase in people (predominantly women) who’ve been killed by their current or ex-partners. Sometimes, along with their children. Over Christmas, while we were working on the March issue, there were three cases alone. Since then, two more and one attempt by a man who drove a petrol tanker into his ex’s home… 

And those were the ones that made the national news. Because, trust me, there are plenty more that don’t. 

We all know someone who’s experienced ‘relationship abuse’, or know someone who knows someone, or have even been there ourselves. And every time a new case crosses our desks, the Red features team wonders what we can do. We sell 230,000+ copies of the magazine and Redonline.co.uk has that many visitors again, for crying out loud, so there must be something. And so, we talked to domestic violence charity Refuge about how we could get involved. 

As I said, I have to own up to a personal interest. Five-and-a-half years ago, a good friend of my family was killed by her husband. She was in her mid-thirties and they had been married for just a few months. I won’t go into the details, it’s too traumatic for everyone concerned. But, if you think this doesn’t happen to women like you, take my word for it: it does. Suffice to say, the man in question (who had vowed to love and cherish her, in front of people who genuinely did, only months earlier) changed his plea to guilty the morning he was due to go to trial, and is now in prison serving life with a minimum of 18 years.  If there was something Red could do to help save even one woman’s life, to stop another family going through what hers has endured, it has to be worth doing. 

Well, we believe there is, and we launch our campaign, Speak Up, Save A Life, in the new issue. And I’m incredibly grateful to Refuge, and the brave sisters, daughters and friends of women who have died at the hands of their partners, who have lent their support. I hope you will get a chance to read features director Lindsay Frankel’s amazing article, and if, having done so, you feel as strongly as we do, please sign our petition. We need 100,000 signatures so this debate can go to the House of Commons. 

Thanks for listening.

Join the conversation and sign our Speak Up, Save A Life campaign

My ex-boyfriend threw me down the stairs, shattering my kneecap & putting me in a cast for 6 weeks. He punched me in the face so hard that my jaw still clicks every time I chew, almost 4 years later. This is important. I was lucky. This needs to go to the House of Commons.

Please just sign it.

This doesn’t have enough notes…or signatures.

I have to warn you. This is a serious post. And more than a bit sad. So if you’re, frankly, not in the mood, please feel free to stop reading now. Because there’s something in this month’s magazine (March issue, on sale tomorrow) that’s of huge importance to me. And this is a personal plea, from me, to you, to lend us your support. 

You may have seen recently that there seems to be an increase in people (predominantly women) who’ve been killed by their current or ex-partners. Sometimes, along with their children. Over Christmas, while we were working on the March issue, there were three cases alone. Since then, two more and one attempt by a man who drove a petrol tanker into his ex’s home… 

And those were the ones that made the national news. Because, trust me, there are plenty more that don’t. 

We all know someone who’s experienced ‘relationship abuse’, or know someone who knows someone, or have even been there ourselves. And every time a new case crosses our desks, the Red features team wonders what we can do. We sell 230,000+ copies of the magazine and Redonline.co.uk has that many visitors again, for crying out loud, so there must be something. And so, we talked to domestic violence charity Refuge about how we could get involved. 

As I said, I have to own up to a personal interest. Five-and-a-half years ago, a good friend of my family was killed by her husband. She was in her mid-thirties and they had been married for just a few months. I won’t go into the details, it’s too traumatic for everyone concerned. But, if you think this doesn’t happen to women like you, take my word for it: it does. Suffice to say, the man in question (who had vowed to love and cherish her, in front of people who genuinely did, only months earlier) changed his plea to guilty the morning he was due to go to trial, and is now in prison serving life with a minimum of 18 years.  If there was something Red could do to help save even one woman’s life, to stop another family going through what hers has endured, it has to be worth doing. 

Well, we believe there is, and we launch our campaign, Speak Up, Save A Life, in the new issue. And I’m incredibly grateful to Refuge, and the brave sisters, daughters and friends of women who have died at the hands of their partners, who have lent their support. I hope you will get a chance to read features director Lindsay Frankel’s amazing article, and if, having done so, you feel as strongly as we do, please sign our petition. We need 100,000 signatures so this debate can go to the House of Commons. 

Thanks for listening.

Join the conversation and sign our Speak Up, Save A Life campaign

My ex-boyfriend threw me down the stairs, shattering my kneecap & putting me in a cast for 6 weeks. He punched me in the face so hard that my jaw still clicks every time I chew, almost 4 years later. This is important. I was lucky. This needs to go to the House of Commons.

Please just sign it.

‘Monster’ by Stephen Collins, for Time to Change.

This was originally posted February 26, 2010.

I deal with suicidal, unipolar depression and I take medication daily to treat it. Over the past seven years, I’ve had two episodes that were severe and during which I thought almost exclusively of suicide. I did not eat much and lost weight during…

Reblogging in the wake of such awful news about Wales manager Gary Speed. Even if you don’t have depression, awareness and an open mind can and does save lives.

A truly wonderful piece written by the very funny, very talented, and very sexy Rob Delaney.

This was originally posted February 26, 2010.

I deal with suicidal, unipolar depression and I take medication daily to treat it. Over the past seven years, I’ve had two episodes that were severe and during which I thought almost exclusively of suicide. I did not eat much and lost weight during…

theinformedvegan:

Nose jobs, eye lifts, and implants are all common plastic surgery procedures that have become more popular in recent years, and not just in humans.

The Telegraph UK reports that pet insurance claims for plastic surgery are up 25% in the past three years. Surgeries range from…

I struggle not to see the purely cosmetic surgeries as a form of animal abuse.

Fancy putting your daughter off her food? Then buy her Maggie Goes on a Diet, a children’s book aimed – according to Barnes & Noble, one of the many booksellers on whose website it is currently listed – at six- to 12-year-olds.

The book tells the story of 14-year-old Maggie, who according to its blurb “is transformed from being overweight and insecure to a normal-sized teen who becomes the school soccer star”. It’s not out until October, but so disquieting is the cover image that perhaps we may, in this case, allow ourselves to judge the book by it. Maggie is depicted as dumpy, pigtailed, wearing an unflattering jumper (has nobody told her that wide lateral stripes aren’t a good look when you’re carrying a few extra pounds?), staring into the mirror, presumably dreaming of a thinner self who will one day wear the tiny pink prom dress she’s holding wistfully to her chest.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2011/aug/17/diet-book-for-girls)

If you were concerned you had HIV (and lived in America), it would be easy enough to get some blood drawn at a clinic near your house, and wait a few days (or even hours) for the results. But in Africa, many clinics and hospitals have to send out blood samples to a national lab. It’s a process that can take weeks, and patients in remote areas sometimes don’t even bother to make the trek back to the clinic to get results. On a continent with a rampant HIV epidemic, this is a big problem. But Columbia University researchers have a partial solution—a $1 plastic chip that can diagnose HIV and syphilis in 15 minutes.

It has its flaws, but I fucking love the NHS. <3