This charity's technology can save your life

It is difficult to turn such a negative as stalking into a positive, but a Gloucestershire charity is giving real hope - and as National Stalking Awareness Week draws to a close we find out why.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the Thursday email edition of The Raikes Journal - the first edition we’ve published since our return from the Easter break. Although we have been updating the website with a few stories here and there.

Regular readers will know that on Thursday we usually just run a single story, with the full email editions which feature a longer lead, business briefing notes, expert articles and more on Monday and Friday.

And they will also know that in order to make what we do sustainable - real journalism for Gloucestershire - we often part paywall the main story on our Thursday edition and regularly do the same on Friday’s too. But today and tomorrow we keep the paywalls off.

You can thank our Founding Partners, Willans, Randall & Payne, QuoLux and Gloucestershire College especially for that, our Founding Members and paid-up subscribers.

But we wanted everyone to see today’s story - and tomorrow’s too, when we plan to feature a write-up on a truly remarkable campaign that has galvanised Cheltenham’s business community and left a legacy for the town like no other - one that is already saving lives.

When Clare Seed, of Tidal Training, was told she was wasting her time trying to get defibrillators installed in Cheltenham they didn’t realise it, but they said the right thing, because she became so very determined to prove everyone who told her ‘no’ so very wrong.

We’re talking about the Public Hearts Cheltenham Defibrillator Campaign CIC. A special ceremony is due to take place this evening (24 April) at the town’s MX centre to celebrate the installation of the hundredth defib machine in the town. But more of that tomorrow.

Today we ask you to come with us to take another look at a Gloucestershire charity many will already assume they know well, and an issue many will think has nothing to do with them. And hopefully it never will.

Remember, for every person you refer to The Raikes Journal’s email service you get points towards a free membership allowing you to see beyond our paywalls. Please do sign up (free or otherwise), send the referral link to a friend or colleague, and help us grow.

Andrew Merrell (editor).

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be about, or want to learn about commercial opportunities or how to partner with us then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

NB: We believe Raikes now publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire.

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* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this CIC too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too.

You can sign up to receive your two extra editions a week and see past all our paywalls for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!

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This charity's technology can save your life

It is difficult to turn such a negative as stalking and the horrors that can follow into a positive, but a Gloucestershire charity is achieving just that - and as National Stalking Awareness Week draws to a close we find out why.

By Andrew Merrell.

On the eve of the end of National Stalking Awareness Week The Hollie Gazzard Trust sent out a press release that simply offered a 50 per cent discount on its police-approved safety app, and sadly no doubt many simply walked on by.

It’s easy to dismiss another story because we assume we know all there is to know about an organisation, even one like the Trust that was born from an event that remains as emotive and traumatic today as it did when the organisation was founded more than decade ago.

Perhaps that helps explain in part why society is slow to change and needs organisations like the Hollie Gazzard Trust to continue fighting, to remind us that even 10 years after the murder of the Gloucestershire hairdresser whose name it has immortalised, her story remains as relevant today as then.

Today the Trust certainly has even more weapons and tools in its armoury. They are tools that, had they been around back then - when Hollie was murdered, in her place of work, in public - it could have been a very different ending.

It is one of those tools that the charity wanted to promote this week, during National Stalking Awareness Week - a simple piece of software that turns a mobile phone into a powerful tool that can deliver safety, justice and freedom.