On Monday 17 August 2026, Survivors Of aBuse Founder and CEO Chris Tuck and SoB Ambassador Beverley Ann had the pleasure of meeting Fatima Whitbread MBE, Founder and Chair of Fatima’s UK Campaign, and Gina Gardiner, Co-founder and Vice Chair, over lunch.

It was an opportunity to continue a relationship that has been developing for some time — and to explore how our shared experiences, values and work could now translate into further action.

Fatima first joined Chris and Beverley as a guest on their Breaking The Cycle to Step Forward podcast more than a year ago, sharing her experiences and her passion for improving the lives of children and young people who experience the care system.

More recently, Fatima and Gina both joined us at Survivors Of aBuse’s 10th Anniversary Impact Event, where we celebrated ten years of the charity while also looking firmly towards what still needs to change.

So sitting down together over lunch was not about making introductions.

It was about asking:

What can we achieve together next?

Where our work connects

Fatima’s UK Campaign is focused on improving confidence, self-worth, experiences and life opportunities for children, young people and adults who have experienced the care system.

At Survivors Of aBuse, our work focuses on adults affected by childhood sexual abuse, other forms of childhood abuse and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), helping people understand how childhood trauma can continue to affect the mind, body, relationships and wider life long after the original experiences have ended.

There is an important crossover.

Childhood abuse, neglect, family breakdown, trauma and care experience do not exist in neatly separated boxes.

For many people, they intersect.

And unless we understand those connections, we risk responding only to what we can see rather than understanding what sits underneath.

Four women, different journeys, shared purpose

Each of us brings something different to the table.

Chris brings lived experience of childhood abuse and trauma alongside more than a decade of survivor advocacy, campaigning and the development of SoB’s Breaking The Cycle™ C.L.E.A.N.E.R.™ Living Psycho-Educational Therapy Programme.

Beverley brings her own lived experience of the care system. She is now a Survivors Of aBuse Ambassador and works directly with children and young people within residential care, giving her a powerful perspective spanning both personal experience and present-day practice.

Together, Chris and Beverley co-host Breaking The Cycle to Step Forward, creating conversations around childhood trauma, care experience, recovery, resilience and how we can prevent damaging cycles from continuing into another generation.

Fatima has transformed her own childhood and care experience into decades of achievement and, now, campaigning for meaningful improvements for care-experienced children and young people.

Gina brings extensive experience in leadership, personal development and creating sustainable positive change.

Different journeys and different expertise — but a significant amount of common ground.

Joining Fatima’s UK Campaign Action Hub

Following our discussions, Survivors Of aBuse has been welcomed as a member of one of Fatima’s UK Campaign Action Hubs.

The Action Hubs have been established to move beyond rhetoric and create practical, collaborative and lasting change.

Their guiding principles include:

• Enhanced Experiences for people who have experienced the care system.
• Models of Excellence which can be adopted and replicated.
• Mentorship and Collaboration across organisations and all four nations.
• Trailblazing Action through innovative and practical approaches.
• Constructive Engagement with local and national decision-makers.

This approach strongly reflects the way SoB already works.

We believe lived experience should not simply be consulted at the end of a process. It should help shape the thinking, services, policy and solutions from the beginning.

We also know that no single organisation can address the consequences of childhood adversity alone.

We need to join the dots.

Between childhood and adulthood.

Between care experience and trauma.

Between mental and physical health.

Between services and the people those services exist to support.

And between lived experience, professional expertise and decision-making.

From surviving to creating change

One of the most powerful things about this developing collaboration is that it brings together people who understand, in very different ways, what can happen when childhood does not provide the safety, stability and support every child deserves.

But this is not simply about looking backwards.

It is about using that knowledge to improve what happens next.

How do we give children and young people better experiences today?

How do we better understand behaviour through the lens of trauma?

How do we support care-experienced adults who may still be carrying the impact decades later?

And how do we prevent another generation having to spend adulthood trying to recover from childhood?

These are complex questions.

They will not be solved by one organisation, one campaign or one programme.

But bringing the right people together is an important place to start.

From Fatima appearing on our podcast, to Fatima and Gina sharing our 10th Anniversary Impact Event, to the four of us sitting around a table discussing what comes next, this relationship continues to grow.

We are delighted that Survivors Of aBuse is now part of Fatima’s UK Campaign Action Hub network, and we are looking forward to turning our shared conversations into meaningful action.

Because breaking cycles requires more than awareness. It requires collaboration, courage and action.