Behind closed doors – Why Destiny Lifeline Exists

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So you might be wondering why I wanted to do these 3 sporting challenges and where any money raised will be going? I chose Destiny Lifeline as my charity for donations as I heard Lynn Smillie talking passionately about why she started up the organisation so I met with her to get a bit more insight:20130708-145002.jpg

Q: What is Destiny Lifeline?

A: Lifeline is here to deal with the destructive effects that abuse, sex trade (prostitution and trafficking) and prison have on individuals and their families.

Through the past 9 years as I’ve healed from the effects from my own mother being murdered by my father after a life of domestic abuse and I have a burning desire to raise awareness in women and their families on what abuse actually is. A lot of people don’t realise they are abusing others through emotional, verbal or sexual behaviours and it is only now in recent years that the research has shown it comes in many forms. Often it can start with gentle sarcasm and progress to violence and very commonly sexual violence and finally domestic homicide. One of the biggest and most profound discoveries within myself researching back to my own family and in and around my friends and close acquaintances is a thing called ‘love addiction’.

[Love addiction is a human behavior in which people become addicted to the feeling of being in love. Love addicts can take on many different behaviors. Love addiction is common; however, most love addicts do not realize they are addicted to love. Love addiction can be treated with various recovery techniques, most of which are similar to recovery from other addictions such as sex addiction and alcoholism, through group meetings and support groups.[1] Addictive love is an inclusive term in that it includes “addicts” and “co-addicts”, “co-dependents“, “emotional anorectics”, and “love avoidants”.. ref http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_addiction]

Q: What are you doing at lifeline to support these ladies?

A: Working alongside key Glasgow city projects*; police; social work and our sister organisation Destiny Angels**. We receive referrals regarding ladies of all ages and backgrounds with different types of abuse which is either previous or current and work on an individual basis according to their specific requirements.

*We are currently extending our operations to other Scottish cities – next are Aberdeen and Peterhead with an outlook of Edinburgh later in 2013.

**Destiny Angels is a project supporting the cities most destitute with food and clothing drop in on a Wednesday and a Friday at the Glasgow Gorbals Christian Centre and telephone support line 0333 900 0909.

Our Destiny Lifeline outreach consists of:

  • Street Outreach
  • 2:2:1 i.e. two volunteers meeting with 1 vulnerable lady in need of support
  • Groupwork
Groupwork : Treating the ladies to high tea every week ‘because they are worth it!’

Groupwork High Tea Served to ladies on a Thursday

Once contact is established, we carry out an assessment to identify experience and current issues, implementing awareness of perpetrating behaviours in comparison to normal behaviours and also carry out a health, safety and planning programme based on their needs. It must be said that great emphasis is put on the safety of the individual after awareness is given because statistics prove that the majority of domestic homicide happens within two weeks of an individual resisting the abuser.

Q: How do you raise money for Lifeline and how can people get involved?

A: We raise money through selling the crafts created during group work, through the Cafe and through individual and corporate sponsorship and donations. [We are currently setting up the VirginMoneyGiving charity page and this will soon be available]

Q: What happens to the money raised?

A: All money raised for Lifeline first contributes towards taking the women out, materials for group work (includes crafts, reading material, high tea cakes, sandwiches, fruit) and we are working towards our vision of buying and maintaining a restoration home. A safe house to take ladies out of danger.

We want to take them on a journey from their most destitute condition to getting them safe, fed, providing them training and getting them employable again even running their own businesses and becoming fully independent members of society. Given time and restoration we’d love to have them back as Life volunteers supporting and using their experiences to the benefit of others. We currently run a not for profit social enterprise ‘Dorcas Cafe’ and craft shop ‘Dorcas Closet’ selling crafts produced by the ladies and local craftsmen and women situated within Destiny Church, 1120 Pollokshaws Road, Shawlands, Glasgow G41 3QP.

Groupwork – High Tea served to ladies to give them the treatment they deserve…

Groupwork: Arts and Crafts

artsncrafts

Dorca’s Cafe:

dorcascafeupstairsDorcasCafelitup

https://www.facebook.com/DestinyLifeline

https://www.facebook.com/DorcasCafe

https://www.facebook.com/dorcascloset

“give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes“Image

 

Just Plane Running

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Final day at the education session down South was Thursday…  two education sessions, two tests and an IBM exec presentation after a lengthy lunch and a wee amble out in the coutryside and we were off to Heathrow T5…   A very kind collegue took pity on my economy ticket status and signed me into the BA lounge and we sat and chatted about snowboarding, wakeboarding and all the changes coming into effect in Scotland for IBM so we can be better aligned to our client priorities…

Time flies as they say…  he went off for his early flight back to Glasgow and I got blogging…  then realised that I was at the other end of the airport (South lounge) whilst my plane was departing from the North end of the building…

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I packed up the laptop and bolted out the lounge at high speed with only 15 mins left to board the flight before departure and then legged it along the entire length of the terminal only to be told that everyone had been quick to board and that my case was now being disembarked!

Uch well another 2 hours in a business lounge, free dinner and a glass of wine was not too hard to swallow and it meant that on a day that there would be 0 training I actually managed a 396 metre dash !  Is there any benefit for the legs in running in a high heels?!

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Joggy woggy cutting across corn fields?!

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I made it through the first day of the training course and scored a reasonable 70% for the pre-test so the review of the material I did after the gym was worth it… Also just so happened to be sitting two seats down from a helpful and friendly colleague who lives only 3 miles away and had some great advice about where to go running… “you can’t miss it… just go down the drive from the big house, through the main gate into the lane and you will see the ‘Chess Valley Walk’ sign, go left along the river and you wlil enjoy a jog with no traffic”Sounds fantastic! Obviously I’d already done a session in the gym on Tuesday morning so guilt fee went to a barbeque (indoor… no barbeque in sight… ) laid on by the hotel for the team…

One wine, two wines, three wines floor! (just about!) Met some lovely folks from Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Northern Ireland England and Scotland and its rude not to participate in a wee vino to get to know everyone better right?!

I think I managed 2 litres of water through the night to ensure that I was in top form for the next days education sessions and obviously to keep me hydrated for tomorrows training session…

Wednesday education went well so I rushed off to get ready for my jog… lycra – Check! music – Check! iPhone Strava app and heart rate monitor – Check!

Bounded out of the hotel and headed through the gate as per instructions into the English Country Lane and my first challenge negotiating 3 cars and a 4×4! Completely missed the turning as a result but quickly came across a wee green sign pointing me up between two houses, through a gate and into a small field back towards the hotel! YIKES whats that? Two Afghan Hounds running at me like a couple of Pantene Shampoo models but barking their heads off!

Negotiated the gate at the other end of the field without being mauled to death thankfully and was back on the road 20 yards from where I started hahaha! So decided to abandon the river jog and headed off through the country lanes and past “old macdonald nursery”… Within a couple more hundred yards and many more crazy country car drivers I found another little green sign pointing off the road and into fields and before i knew it I was striding through a corn field at a jaunty angle thanking the lord its not harvest time and there are no combine harvesters!

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Completely randomly a figure appeared jogging towards me and it turned out to be a French dude from my course but no time for anything other than a smile and a wave as I jogged on into a small wood and clambered over a wooden stile and onwards into yet another vast corn field… thinking to myself build it and they will come… I wonder if thats the case with this blog lol!

Anyway I was well out of breath and a bit blue in the face with exhaustion so welcomed a pause for some photos before checking the Strava app… GORDON BENNETT! I thought last nights 206 beats a minute was a bit much but this time my heart was waaaay up at 211… I think this could be a record or a heart attack in the making… decided to take it easy and have a rest for a bit before heading back cautiously so as not to kill myself!

Sped up past a hot cyclist before clocking in at 40 minutes… can I really do a marathon? is there any hope for this 110 mile cycle? is 80 miles of Great Glen Way pushing it a bit far? I’ll keep you posted!

 

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Heart beat gone crazy…

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…imagine the scene… Phone alarm ring tone wakes you up… Shock horror it’s only 6 a.m.!!!!

Very strangely I managed to get up and out of bed. Dressed in Lycra i headed to the hotel gym!

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‘Good on me’ you might think but only 15 mins in and my heart rate at 205 BPM I realised there was a problem!! Chest infections and flu are not so easy to get over as I hoped!!!

I was getting seriously hot and looking through the curved glass to the swimming pool longingly (thankfully the curved glass meant I couldn’t see my red faced straining reflection so it was all good!). Realising that my dangerously high heart rate might kill me along with the heat I spotted the Air Con unit controller on the wall and turned it on…. ! DOH should have done that in the first place… I think I’d rather just avoid gyms in future.

I managed a 30 min session on the treadmill before giving up and getting back to my room to review the pre-course reading material for my first day of training on IBM’s recent Software acquisitions. More on that later….

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Countdown begins….

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Ok, I’m new to this blogging malarkey so bear with me… also not the best at spelling so be gracious (and ping me if you have some constructive editing for me!)

So its:

4 Weeks to go until the 71 mile Great Glen Way Walk (Fort William to Inverness),

10 Weeks to go until the 110 mile Pedal for Scotland Cycle (Glasgow to Edinburgh via the borders!) and

13 Weeks to go until the 26 mile jog and my first ever Marathon (along the bonny banks of Loch Ness…)

Going by my past efforts to do 10K run’s, Half Marathon’s and the 46 mile Challenge Pedal for Scotland my training could let me down!

However, this blog is hopefully going to embarrass me into doing more consistent and frequent training whilst sharing my experiences, sharing about the reason behind the challenge and generating some cash for a very worthy cause!

So where am I at…?  I’ve just recovered from a flu and finished my antibiotics to clear my chest infection and I’m raring to go…   Challenge number 1, I’m going on a 3 day training course outside of London so I know cycling is out this week and I’m going to take my running kit and get some time out pounding the roads every day!  (p.s. no I don’t think I’ll have time for training today as I’m catching a flight after work however, I’ll see how I get on if its not to late when I check in!)

“aye and Pigs might fly or Nessy might appear in Loch Ness” I hear you cry…   well here’s hoping… !

Overnoot for day one!

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Loch Ness Marathon

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Loch Ness Marathon

So here’s the details of the 26 mile Marathon Route… Looks almost downhill! =)  Although did get this feedback:

“Did it in 2007. Not fun. Big long bus journey out to start. Hanging around in the cold waiting for other buses to arrive. Loads of small but steep hills in the first 5 miles. Some major aggressive assholes running it. By far my least enjoyable marathon. Enjoy!” Thanks Gav! I’ll try my best to enjoy it if thats a word that goes with Marathons at all?!