Walking for Refuge This Domestic Abuse Awareness Month

October is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, and this year everyone at Fox Collective is putting our energy behind a charity that matters deeply to us: Refuge.

Refuge supports thousands of women and children experiencing domestic abuse every year. It runs the free, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline and provides safe accommodation and specialist support. Many women arrive at a refuge with very little: sometimes only the clothes they are wearing.

Why we support Refuge

Most of the people who walk through our door are women. As a nurse-led clinic, we spend time listening to our patients and we see how much a woman’s safety, confidence and wellbeing are connected. Domestic abuse can affect anyone, but it affects women overwhelmingly, and it is often hidden from friends, family and colleagues.

We want Fox Collective to be a place where women feel safe, heard and supported, and we want to help make sure that anyone who needs help knows where to find it.

Walking 62 miles in October

Throughout October, Kerry is taking on Refuge’s Walk 62 Miles in October challenge, and we are running a series of fundraising activities around Hitchin to go with it. Local businesses have been wonderful, displaying our JustGiving QR code and helping us spread the word. A huge thank you to RED1 Skate Store & Café, Greys and HUB Fitness for getting behind the campaign. Our video thanking them has already been watched more than 17,000 times.

You will also notice that we are wearing pink in clinic. Throughout October the team is in pink scrubs to show our support for Refuge, so please do ask us about the challenge when you visit.

Every donation makes a real difference. Refuge says that just £19 could pay for a call to its helpline, the first step towards safety for a woman and her children.

You can also find the link in the bio on our Instagram, @foxmedicalaesthetics, where we will be sharing updates from the challenge all month.

How you can help

• Donate, however small, through our JustGiving page.
• Share our posts so more people see them, and so more people know the helpline number.
• If you run a local business and would like to display our QR code, pop in to see us at 47a Bancroft or get in touch.

If you need support

If you are worried about your own safety, or someone else’s, you are not alone and help is available.

• National Domestic Abuse Helpline (run by Refuge): 0808 2000 247, free and confidential, 24 hours a day. You can also use live chat at nationaldahelpline.org.uk.
• In an emergency, always call 999.
• Find out more about Refuge’s work at refuge.org.uk.

If you are a patient of ours and would like to talk, you can always speak to us in confidence.

Thank you to everyone who has already donated, shared and supported. Let’s go!

Kerry Marshall Shergold, Fox Collective Hitchin