After seeing a link to a post on FB, shared by a member of a camera club I belonged to, I asked a few friends to put bags together for the Love Grace Handbag Appeal. Grace Millane was a beautiful young woman with a bright future who was very sadly killed when she was travelling in NZ from the UK. Her murder affected me quite a lot because it happened the same month my eldest daughter was going to go travelling straight from school. My daughter was only 18 and not street wise after growing up in our small, very safe town in a rural area of NZ, so I worried how she'd get on on her own. Luckily, 5 years on, she's done a lot of travelling, with and without her boyfriend, and I'm very proud of how she's coped.
It's incredibly sad that Grace's mum can't say the same. She, and other members of Grace's family and friends, have set up a charity in her name, "Love Grace", which campaigns against domestic violence and violence against women. In NZ there's an annual appeal where people can donate a handbag, filled with women's toiletries, and these are passed on to women's refuges. My younger daughter and I bought our handbags at charity shops and it was nice to have the added bonus of donating to them.
Such a sad story but what a wonderful cause! What I also love is the idea of buying at a charity shop and supporting another cause. I have so many handbags I could donate, wish I were closer.
I remember that SO well. It also affected me hugely as my daughter is of a similar age and I couldn't help thinking that it could have happened to her. To any young girl. And so unexpected in a country like NZ where any parent would have expected her to be safe. Such a sad and unfortunate story. But, so happy to hear about this charity.
I am so aware of the sad story of Grace but unaware of the charity. I have googled this and there are no donation points close by but will certainly contact one that maybe relatively close the region where I live.
