HRH The Princess Royal took time out of her busy schedule to meet with winners of the Daily Mail Inspirational Women Awards today.
Looking effortlessly elegant in a green dress and navy blazer, Princess Anne hosted a private reception for the five heroic women at St James’s Palace in London.
Among them was Ellen Roome MBE, 50, whom the princess was left noticeably moved by.
Ellen is among parents campaigning for tighter regulation around addictive social media features, after the heart wrenching death of her 14-year-old son Jools Sweeney in April 2022, which she believes could have been caused by exposure to harmful online content.
She has so far been denied access to her son’s social media data to discover the truth but her tireless work led to a major breakthrough earlier this year, when the Government agreed to an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill requiring children’s social media data to be automatically preserved within five days of their death.
After receiving her award, Ellen, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, told The Daily Mail: ‘Princess Anne was warm, engaging, genuinely interested in meeting us, and took the time to ask thoughtful questions. I found her incredibly down-to-earth and knowledgeable. It was a real honour to meet her.’
Also sharing a tender moment with the princess was former yoga teacher Leanne Lucas, who has turned unimaginable personal tragedy into one of Britain’s most powerful campaigns against knife crime.
Less than two years ago, Leanne organised the Taylor Swift-themed children’s workshop in Southport that ended in horror when teenager Axel Rudakubana launched a frenzied knife attack, killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe.
HRH The Princess Royal took time out of her busy schedule to meet with winners of the Daily Mail Inspirational Women Awards today
Despite devastating physical injuries and ongoing psychological trauma, she has channelled her experience into extraordinary action through her prevention-led organisation, Let’s Be Blunt.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Leanne, 37, from Southport, Merseyside, said: ‘It’s so clear what an avid campaigner Princess Anne is herself. She is so well-versed on so many issues.
‘We talked about how lived experience is so important and she was so personally grateful for the work all the winners do, considering what we go through on a daily basis.
‘She was interested in each and every one of us and that really meant a lot.’
Rachael Reign, from south London, awarded for her work as one of the UK’s leading survivor experts on spiritual and cultic abuse, added: ‘She was really disarming and just so interesting to talk to.’
The single mum, 32, who helps other people trying to move on from cults through her organisation Surviving Universal UK, added: ‘It was so lovely that she took time out to speak to us all privately. We talked about how cults often appeal to people’s most basic needs.’
Also at the private reception was campaigner and mum-of-two Hope Virgo, 35, from Bristol, who has spent years lobbying for better care and treatment services for people with eating disorders, and grandmother Patricia Parker OBE.
Hope said: ‘It was wonderful to meet HRH and have the chance to raise issues that people were eating disorders are facing across the UK.
Looking effortlessly elegant in a green dress and navy blazer, Princess Anne hosted a private reception for the five heroic women at St James’s Palace in London. Among them was Ellen Roome MBE, 50, whom the princess was left noticeably moved by
‘What we really need is leadership in the space to ensure that people get adequate support and treatment.’
Patricia, 78, from Dorking in Surrey, has transformed the lives of more than 600,000 people across Darfur, in western Sudan, since setting up her charity Kids for Kids 25 years ago. She described her win as ‘beyond my dreams’ and called the reception at St James’s ‘a real privilege’.
After meeting Princess Anne, she added: ‘It was such an honour. She has a reputation for really caring about children and being hands on, wanting to make a long- term difference, and we had a fascinating conversation about how important education is to young people.’
The five winners were selected by a judging panel from hundreds of truly inspiring entries, after The Mail launched its annual Inspirational Women Awards two months ago, asking people to nominate the incredible women they know who go the extra mile for others.
Last night, the winners celebrated with a private dinner at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in London, in partnership with disability charity Sense and sponsored by Marks & Spencer.
Princess Anne, a patron of Sense and Sense International since 1989, proudly wore the charity’s badge today and joked with the group about how late their night had been, asking if there were any sore heads.
Ellen Roome arrived at yesterday’s dinner with fellow campaigner and mum Lauren Cowell – partner of music mogul Simon Cowell – who had nominated her for the Daily Mail award.
Alongside Ellen and many other families, Lauren, 48, has backed calls for a clampdown on social media for under-16s.
She was left noticeably touched by the stories of the other winners too, staying late into the night to chat to them.
After last night’s event, Lauren once again took to Instagram today, urging people to petition for social media change.
She explained: ‘Right now in government the meetings that decide how safe our children are actually going to be online are happening this week.
‘The consultation has closed and ministers are expected to decide the level of detail as to how to keep their promise, to us, on raising the age for harmful social media within the next two weeks.’
Lauren, who has a son, Eric, 12, with Simon, as well as older son Adam from her previous marriage, added: ‘The ask is simple: A minimum age of 16 for harmful social media. Not curfews. Not future tweaks. Not compromises.
‘Email your MP. Tell them the government must raise the age to 16 for harmful social media. It takes 30 seconds. Link is below. Let’s get this done. Let’s do this!’
