Pick Me Up! 27-Aug-2020

As a manager for the charity Roots4Life, I’ve been helping to tackle food poverty and social isolation within my area for a few years now. We were in the midst of getting planning permission for a community centre before COVID-19 struck and put a halt to the proceedings. The centre was meant to be a place for the community to come together for food, company and activities. Before lockdown was enforced, the charity had already identified a number of people who needed food delivering to them. We’d already fundraised £500 and prepped all the food, so I figured I may as well deliver it. If they needed it before lockdown, then they definitely needed it now. So, I made it my mission to go around the community and make sure…

Picture this Fancy a picturesque weekend away? To identify which areas are home to the most picture-perfect villages, Bankrate.com took to Instagram to assess the number of hashtags for rural locations dotted around the UK. From the tip of Scotland to every nook and cranny of Cornwall, they’ve found the top 10 prettiest villages to scope out on your next mini break. GOOD DEED OF THE WEEK In need of a mask? MaskClub has launched in the UK with the first ever mask subscription service! Founded solely to provide protective facial wear, MaskClub has thousands of officially licensed designs, with iconic and recognisable prints from Warner Bros., Care Bears, Sesame Street, Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman and more to make the process of mask wearing less intimidating. For every mask purchased, MaskClub…

A message pinged into my inbox. Who’s this? I thought, puzzled. My heart skipped a beat when I clocked who the message was from – a popular local lad from the area called Mitchell Audley-Ellis. Hi Chloe, how are you? You’re looking good I must say! the message read. Mitchell lived in the same area, and we’d gone to the same primary school. I didn’t know him very well at all, but I’d always thought he was quite a catch. We hadn’t spoken in years, but now, looking through his Facebook profile, I realised he was quite good looking! I was flattered that he’d messaged me. It was October 2014, and between working shifts at TK Maxx and taking care of my daughter Lily, then 10 months, I hardly had…

As Mitchell was still distracted and typing away on his phone, I climbed out of the window and ran for my life. ‘Help! Help me please!’ I screamed, jumping into the road when I saw a car passing. Thankfully, an elderly couple let me in their car and called the police. Officers turned up within five minutes and arrested Mitchell. In the time I was gone, he had got the kids dressed and had even tied up Millie’s hair into a ponytail. I think he was planning on taking them away from me – terrifying. ‘It’s OK, Mummy is OK now,’ I tried to reassure the kids as soon as we were reunited at the house. They were so scared and confused. Now that we were safe, though, all the…

TOUGH START When I was born, I was diagnosed with a Bilateral Tessier cleft. It meant that not only did I have facial deformities from my lip up, but I was also blind in my left eye. My mum, Livi, now 38, had no idea I’d be born like it. My mouth was split from my lips to my eyes, meaning there was a gaping hole in my mouth. When I was just eight-months-old, in April 2003, I underwent major reconstruction surgery to close up one side of my face and adjust my eyelids. Then, a few months later, the second side was done. From my very start in life, all this meant was I bound to be treated differently. Although my mouth had now been shut, I hardly looked…

This week, our tip of the week will receive a great product from Addis! The Stack and Store range is the ultimate space saving design. The canisters can be stacked on top of one another or stored on the worktop as separates. They have airtight lids with screw lock mechanism, they are space saving, easy to dispense and you can see what’s inside! For more ways to make your life easier, visit addis.co.uk Fashionista My dangly earrings get tangled lots, so a pretty and practical way to store them and show them off is by using a cute cocktail glass on my dresser. Makes for a fun ornament, too! Amanda Hadley, Hayseech Splish splash Pop a bin liner flat in your pool and the sun will warm the water much…