Mother and friend of Joanna Simpson appointed CBE
Diana Parkes, the mother of Joanna Simpson, and Joanna's best friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton have been appointed CBE in the New Year Honours list for their work tackling domestic abuse. Report by Czubalam. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00 It was bittersweet, obviously, because had Jo not been so brutally killed by her estranged husband,
00:06 I wouldn't be receiving this because obviously I wouldn't have done the work that we've done
00:13 in memory of Jo. We wouldn't have set up the Joanna Simpson Foundation. We wouldn't have
00:21 noticed the appalling lack of care for children who have suffered from domestic abuse and homicide.
00:30 At the time we set up the foundation in 2014, there was absolutely nobody helping these children.
00:35 So, and to bring up my two grandchildren, who were nine and ten at the time,
00:42 and seeing how they coped was really a very great learning curve
00:50 as to how we could help other children. With the Joanna Simpson Foundation,
00:57 we raise money which we then grant to organisations on the front line who are delivering services to
01:03 children, and particularly new and innovative services, which is really important because
01:08 children were made victims in their own right from domestic abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act
01:14 in 2021. And there's a lot of exploratory work going on to understand actually what that means
01:20 in terms of the sort of support that they require. So the work of the Joanna Simpson
01:23 Foundation has never been more important. - And what was going through your mind when you
01:30 heard that you were receiving this honour? - I was pretty overwhelmed, to be honest,
01:36 and slightly emotional because the truth is that none of this would be happening were it not for
01:42 my beautiful friend Joanna Simpson Foundation. Joanna Simpson, can I start again?
01:46 - Of course, no problem. - I was pretty overwhelmed and emotional
01:51 when I first heard that I was getting this award because the truth is it would not be happening
01:56 were it not for my beautiful friend Joanna Simpson, who lost her life brutally at the
02:01 hands of her ex-husband in 2010. And it was what happened to her that inspired me and indeed her
02:10 mother, Diana Parks, to do the work, TALIS, that we've been doing over the course of the last 13