The NYA Blog
Shadowing the WIs Ruth Bond - Claire Heaton
06 February 2012
Claire Heaton and Ruth Bond
It was an absolute pleasure to be asked to shadow Ruth Bond at an event organised by Action for Prisoners Families and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, to hear about the experiences of WI members making journeys to visit prisoners.
The event was held at The Atlee Room, House of Lords and hosted by Michael Palin, who I met!
I was very interested to hear what Ruth Bond, the Women’s Institute and Action for Prisoners had done to help prisoner’s families through very hard times.
Many of the stories told on the day were very interesting and heartfelt and I felt there was a real connection with the message they was trying to get across.
Meeting Ruth Bond was a privilege. She is a very pleasant woman and made me feel very welcome and answered any questions I asked her. She was also interested in me as a person and we talked about her experience as a judge on Masterchef.
During the speeches, Michael Palin, who is a patron of Action for Prisoners spoke about the importance of the work he is doing with Ruth and the WI in highlighting the challenges faced by prisoners and their families.
Once the presentation and talks had finished it was time to network. Michael came near me so I asked him to have a photo taken with me - I was over the moon, as I have seen a couple of films with him in it.
During the event we met lots of people from the WI who explained their journeys to see prisoners that hadn’t had a visit in several years. I found out that there were lots of reasons for this - such as family breakdown through the person being in prison or simply because it is too far to travel – something I hadn’t appreciated before attending the event.
All in all the day was absolutely brilliant I enjoyed every second of it.
Claire and Michael Palin