Our founder Dr Ann O’Neill is featured on The West Australian to raise awareness of angelhands and our $50K in 50 Days Campaign this year.
Excerpt from the article:
Dr O’Neill’s angelhands, the agency she founded more than a decade ago to help others affected by homicide and serious personal violence, yesterday co-hosted a Perth symposium featuring some of the world’s most prominent victimology identities. It included the angelhands launch of the third annual “$50K in 50 days” fundraising campaign.
The money will be used to fund programs such as the monthly “Hope and Healing” sessions aimed at taking secondary homicide victims past their grief and into an optimistic future.
In that, the most remarkable part of Dr O’Neill’s story is her selfless passion to help others in a daily routine that often requires her to relive her horrific past. She said she would feel hypocritical, having given life to her late children, if she did not now live positively for them.
“Early on, I said the only thing to do was live life to the max and not wallow in it . . . it’s got me through some tough patches,” she said.
“People didn’t necessarily know what to do for me but they tried, and the fact they cared was often enough.
“I believe we as a community have an obligation to make our community better. We can blame other people, but ultimately it’s up to each and every one of us to do our bit to try to make society as just as possible.”
Dr O’Neill once described her life as “red with the hurt, white with the nothingness and blue with the sadness”. But her foray back into motherhood has added new hues.
“I have a very technicolour world,” she mused.
“I have a very crass saying that the s… we go through is the fertiliser that helps us to grow and blossom tomorrow. I guess for a lot of people who have had extremely traumatic experiences, it teaches you to live in the now and appreciate every moment.”
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Read the full article and view the interview video via the links below:
