MICHELLE DEWBERRY Stand the Manipulation, the Anxiety

32 ............... Sunday, December 31, 2017 1GM BACK CAMPAIGN TO STOP CUTS DOING HER BEST . Michelle as a Brownie Elton . £27.5m vow aged ten, and My dad below left, graduating aged 21 with Elt’s firm mum Glynis aid out of abused own sky Rocket . By MICHAEL HAMILTON TRAGIC . Michelle and late sister Fiona SIR Elton John is prop- By SHARON HENDRY ping up his business with his own cash after us for personally guaranteeing APPRENTICE star Michelle £27.5million of his music Dewberry is all too famil- empire’s liabilities. The Rocket Man star, iar with domestic abuse. 70, made the pledge in Her father used to threaten to accounts for William A burn her and her family to Bong, the firm which death if they left him. runs his recording and That is why she backs our Save music publishing activities. Our Shelters campaign to persuade Accounts filed at Com- the Government not to scrap fund- years... panies House show it had ing for family refuges. £38.18million short-term She and her mother and siblings debts, up on £31.77million frequently used refuges while grow- reported in earlier years. ing up when her father’s behaviour However William A left them fearing for their lives. Bong, set up in 1970, Now she has a clear message for remained £1.34million in the ministers planning to remove the black as its debts are their main source of support: “By offset by company assets. not properly funding refuges you will A source said: “It’s not be responsible for the deaths of refuges a good sign that Elton is women and children. guaranteeing money from “Unless you guarantee these vul- his own wealth. nerable people safe facilities, how “It shows his businesses will you sleep soundly at night? are not doing as well — “If you take away refuge or being run as well — as provisions through funding they were.” restructuring or any other means, you will have blood on your hands.” Michelle, 38, who won BBC reality Lasers to show The Apprentice in 2006, saved shared a three-bed terrace in Hull with her five siblings including her late sister Fiona — and suffered a fight tips difficult childhood at the hands of dad Dave, a valve salesman. THE whole of England is The entrepreneur, who has not to be mapped with laser seen him since she was 18, spent technology to fight flood- some of her early years in Women’s ing, aid conservation and Aid refuges. track illegal waste tips. our lives Aircraft with scanners ‘Petrol through letterbox’ will map 50,000 square miles in 3D by 2020. She says: “We experienced a lot of It will help identify domestic violence at the hands of flood risks and can spot my father. He was a very angry sudden landscape person with my mum and his children. I’ve got very scary memories. changes, which can indi- “I recognise domestic violence as a cate dumped waste. cancer in our society, and while it Around 75 per cent of exists there must be mechanisms in England is already place that allow for long-term, mapped but the new data sustainable funding of refuges and will be higher quality, the related services.” Environment Agency said. Michelle, who was on the social services at-risk register with her siblings, witnessed domestic violence for 18 years but stresses there is more to it than physical abuse. She says: “Intimate relationships between partners don’t start violently. A woman isn’t beaten on the first date and left thinking, ‘He’s SAYS the one for me’. “They fall in love, have children, then things start to happen. Before women know it, they are trapped. “When people say, ‘Why don’t women just leave?’ they don’t under- MICHELLE DEWBERRY stand the manipulation, the anxiety. “When we were living with my dad he used to tell my mum that if she tried to leave he’d find us, pour efit that currently accounts for 53 petrol through the letterbox, set fire per cent of total refuge funding. to the house and kill us. As a result, the last guaranteed Dear Prime Minister, Deaf Jo’s “Of course she believed him — source of income for refuges, run by We demand that the Government urgently charities such as Women’s Aid, why wouldn’t she? halts planned changes to funding for the “There were times when we had would be removed. baby joy to use Women’s Aid’s services and I You can join our Save Our Shel- UK’s network of refuges. We call on you to ters appeal by filling in the panel, don’t know what we would have ﬁnd a suitable, long-term funding solution A DEAF woman, known done without them. They are life- right, or pledge your support by and ensure that every woman and child to millions for the stir- saving facilities, full stop, no signing the online petition, below. ring viral video of her different from an A&E department.” Finally, in 1997, aged 42, Michelle’s can safely escape domestic abuse. hearing for the first time, One in four women are affected mum Glynis did leave her dad. has had a baby. by domestic violence in their life, Michelle says: “She is proof that Name..................................................... Joanne Milne’s son yet ministers want to remove refuge any woman can break free. But the SAVE Address.................................................. Teddy with partner hostels from the welfare system. Government has to support women Stephen White arrived by That would mean women would in their courage — not kill them .............................................................. emergency caesarean. no longer pay with the housing ben- with cost cuts.” OUR The 43-year-old from Signature................................................ Durham was born deaf SHELTERS and had cochlear Send to Save Our Shelters Campaign, The News Building, implants three years ago. 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF Joanne is also going XYXYXYXYXYXX blind. She said: “I’ll trea- sure the sight of our baby’s face, I’ll make memories.”.

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