I'm an actress (another one sorry). I moved from my tiny village in the midlands, came to drama school at 18 and in my last few weeks turned up to audition for a play called 'Firebird'. 'Firebird' is about a 15 year old girl who gets groomed, sexually abused and trafficked in the north of England. A fictional story based on the real events that happened in Rochdale (and Oxford, Leeds, Northampton, Birmingham, Cambridge...) I wish it wasn't a true story. These children were let down by the police, social services, schools and a big part of society. To play this part truthfully I had to do ALOT of research. I met these girls (who in our first meetings didn't want to talk about anything other than One Direction or whether or not I would be in EastEnders). I listened and laughed with them, I spent time with rape crisis, social workers, sexual abuse officers, I did some very horrible rehearsals where we pushed it a little further than I'd have liked & I basically became a slight recluse until I felt the loneliness these children felt...I also comfort ate a lot of pizza.

The play went really well! After a short run we transferred to the west end to keep the Firebird flame burning. Thankfully a lot of the right people saw the show. The girls had extreme reactions to it as expected. Some left 15 minutes in, some laughed, some sobbed and some ate crisps the entire way through but they all thanked me for telling their story. To make it accessible for everyone we did a live stream of the show which was viewed in 49 countries!! The education minister saw the show and I then became a young ambassador of the Children's Society. They did so much for me, considering by the end of the run I was black & blue with bruises and emotionally drained to the point of crying PROFUSELEY at Finding Nemo they were the glue in mine and the girls lives. I still regularly see the girls, who are all doing pretty bloody well by the way. Thanks to the Children's Society they are so unbelievably strong, and many other children around the country are too.

Please help me get children the help they urgently need. I am not a runner. This is without doubt the hardest thing I've hard to do and I will do it a hundred times over if it means I can give just a tiny bit of peace back to these children who are stripped of everything. This is for all the Firebird's there have been, and sadly will be. May this subject matter soon be obsolete.

Thank you