I am a Mermaid.

Overnight transformed from doing the school run in curated COS outfits, balancing shared parental care after divorce, a full time career in marketing, navigating motherhood to two young girls.

That day, etched in my memory, when my parents told me what my 4 year old had said. In shock, jumping into practical calls with the NSPCC and Police to set wheels in motion for something I had no idea how to grapple emotionally or practically. People talk about points in their life in which the world shifts for ever, and for me it was then.

I have never been able to wear the floral Zara dress I was wearing that day again (it was my favourite before then) and I can still picture so clearly my instructions to my father to get Marlboro Gold immediately.

The system failed me, and continues to fail my children. I have been powerless, no voice against the mistreatment they receive but I have never wavered to protect my daughters and make sure this doesn’t define them. As Ariel’s voice was taken, my hope is that we can build a community of Mermaids so that our voices are returned.

I want to share the small moments of Hope that give us strength, a light to guide us through. A shimmer of Mermaids, not MOSACs.