I am running two marathons in a week to raise money for Aurora New Dawn’s Athena group course. The first marathon is in London on 3rd October and I will be running Manchester marathon the following weekend.  The Athena groups provide women with vital support after experiencing domestic abuse in a single sex space.

Our Athena group is a course that we have developed over six years. We work with women to support them with the trauma they have experienced after experiencing domestic abuse.At Aurora we believe women need their own spaces to heal from male violence, we fully support the protection of single sex spaces for female victims of male violence. As such, our female only groups, services and spaces apply single sex exemptions under Schedule 3, part 7 of the Equality Act 2010 [1]. Our groups are all female only and are run by and for women.Groups provide a safe opportunity for women to talk about their experiences of domestic abuse and to talk through this with other who have similar experiences. Those who attend can learn coping strategies from others and form supportive bonds with each other. We are now able to run our groups both virtually and in person.Athena is designed around the internationally-recognised Power & Control Wheel and allows survivors to explore the subject of domesti