Business Hugs Heroes

Emma's Story of Change

My daughter never had the closure of leaving primary school thanks to covid. She didn’t have any settling in visits in secondary school and when she did start it was all with heavy rules and much separation of classes and year groups again due to covid. I don’t think this generation of children were really considered when the lockdowns were imposed. It had lots of knock-on effects and I know many children around my daughters age (14 now) who are also suffering anxiety and maybe even depression.

My daughter (let’s call her Emma) was already suffering from anxiety that was stopping her enjoying life, particularly school life, when her two best friends dropped out of school and eventually transferred to a new one. She was left without a friendship group and while the school did try to help they were overwhelmed with similar students on a daily basis. We were being called in to pick her up from the well-being centre and there were many other kids having panic attacks and unable to cope. This got worse, no matter what we tried and we did try everything we and the school could think of. It became so that Emma was hysterically crying before school, having to be physically dragged and manhandled to go there and after a few hours being called to come pick her up as she was inconsolable. She was getting no work done and at home she begged to be home schooled as she had been in lockdown. We resisted and used bribery, threats, being nice, being hard but nothing worked. We looked into home schooling and felt that Emma wasn’t getting any education the way she was going on and home education would be better than nothing. 

We looked around for any kind of counselling or therapy we could get for Emma to help her through whatever she was experiencing and found The Hugs Foundation online. They offer support and therapy to young people experiencing difficulties with their mental or emotional health, amongst other things. Emma was lucky enough to get a 6 week course, fully funded. This has been one hour a week on the farm with a well-being intervention support worker. 

Hugs has two parts to their work; they rescue and rehome animals, such as horses, ponies (including those set to be culled on Bodmin moor), goats, pigs, chickens, guinea pigs etc. some have been abused and some are abandoned. All get an amazing new chance at life with some awesome facilities. The rescued animals are tended to by staff and volunteers and the children go along and get involved with their care. Emma was almost completely non-verbal by the time we got her there. She wouldn’t speak for days on end and would get upset if we pushed her to talk. Being with the Hugs workers and animals she relaxed and her focus was taken away from her issues as she was told about each animals background and given the opportunity to spend time with her favourite ones each week. She’s fed, groomed and walked ponies and goats, helped out feeding the pigs and had cuddles with her favourite guinea pig, Frankie. We’ve sponsored two of her other favourite animals, a donkey and a pony called Oscar and Dude, who are best friends. Dude goes out to nursing homes to see the residents and brings much joy to them too! Emma has also painted some horse shoes and drawn one of the horses. She really enjoyed the art side of being there. I since found out that not only did they know Emma enjoys art (they asked a lot about her before she arrived) but they do this with a lot of the children and young people to help them express their feelings and learn coping mechanism.

After each session Emma is more talkative, noticeably happier and relaxed. As we are coming to the end of these sessions we were worried about what will happen next, they have helped Emma so much and made life better for all of us as a family. We are delighted that they have offered us further sessions to continue these positive changes. They are also rescuing and rehoming animals so it’s completely win-win. They are completely reliant on charitable donations and with the cost of everything, especially hay, going up, they need peoples help more than ever to continue to do the work they do. We have bought some Christmas cards, a 2023 calendar and sponsored two animals to help a little. It’s completely worth it for the work they do. They’re just amazing.

This is the difference you can make.

* Name changed for data protection

Rosie's Story of Change

*Rosie's story begins with a difficult and challenging family relationship, which leads to incidents of abuse in her childhood.  Consequently, Rosie spirals into depression and starts to severely self-harm.  Rosie hits crisis, attempts suicide several times and spends 6 months in a secure psychiatric unit.

At the beginning of 2019, Rosie starts well-being interventions with Hugs.  She develops a special bond with a rescue horse who is also on her journey to recovery after being beaten with a hammer.  The two seem to have a mutual understanding of the trauma they had faced and began healing together.

With the help of the team and rescue horses at Hugs, Rosie's confidence and self-esteem grows, she develops her life skills and even independently seeks voluntary work.  Her tendency to self-harm diminishes, along with her suicidal thoughts.  In September 2019, she enrolls on a Health and Social Care course to pursue her chosen career as a Social Worker, with the end goal of being able to help children and young people who are struggling with similar experiences to her own.  The rescue horse's confidence also grow and in 2020, she finds her forever home.

This is the difference you can make.

* Name changed for data protection