Just a quick update for the weeks before Christmas…

As ever, quite a hectic time! Drink spiking seems to be the official issue of the day, as lots of unions are running really great campaigns at the moment. Top marks go Tom at Plymouth for his drink spiking awareness week and thanks to his campaign helpers from Plymouth site exec and the local police for all their hard work. I had a great evening campaigning in Walkabout (although I wasn’t brave enough to sample the kangaroo burger) and the level of awareness after the campaign was great.

It was an early start the next day as I went over to Bournemouth Uni at the crack of dawn where they’ve managed to get free consultants to develop their drink spiking campaign by getting students to take it on as their course work… I was there to help assess the coursework presentations which was great fun. It was fab to see the huge amount of work that they’d all put into it and the very different campaigns they’d come up with.

Immediately I was then off to Manchester, as we had a Co-Op Housing meeting the next morning. Salford are now getting involved in the project and it’s all moving along which is really exciting…

I also made a wee trip to Leicester to visit Tish and Matt at DMU and Leicester Uni. Tish’s been doing some amazing stuff on drink spiking and has introduced me to the wonder that is the Spika Stopper (or similar spelling!). They’re this little coloured things that fit in the top of drinks bottles that only a straw can fit in… I plan on putting some more info in a mailing soon.

Other stuff that’s been going on includes lots of press work on the issue of sexual health. We seem to be the ‘voice of young people’ on the matter, so I spent a day doing a tour of telly studios which was quite exciting. Somehow my very Maltese and very Catholic Nan managed to switch on the telly just as I was telling the young people of the UK to practice safer sex, and despite not agreeing with the message still managed to tape it and show the entire family in a show of grandparently pride!

All in all it’s been a very very very long term since July and I am very much looking forward to the Christmas break. Lots of sleep and hopefully I’ll be perky enough to come back in January!

Happy Holidays everyone

Helen x x x x

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