Lily Shanagher
Henley Standard
Her piece covers a family whose son had been tormented by a group of teenagers for more than a year. The threats and violence spread to the whole family. Charges were dropped after police failed to act in time and the family was left helpless. The story of police negligence was clearly in the public interest and highlighted the issue of bullying which is prevalent for many children and families.
Lily built a relationship with the family, produced an exclusive splash covering the shock police failing and their apology and a feature on the impact the bullying had on the family. She reached out to Olly Stephens’ father, Stuart, for an interview. Olly’s murder shook the country three years ago and occurred on patch. This story resonated with readers, many of whom commented and reposted it on social media, highlighting the importance of community news. It caused a political storm locally and the chairman of the county’s independent advisory group called the paper’s editor asking for the family’s details so he could address the matter with the chief constable of police. Lily put Stuart Stephens in touch with the family and he offers them help and guidance. The Online Safety Bill has been passed in Parliament to combat this very problem, increasing the article’s relevance. Her second entry covers a group of children who became unwell after swimming in the River Thames in Henley. The pollution in rivers across the country is a topical issue for many reasons: the failings of private water companies, climate change and the Government’s perceived ineffectiveness at funding regulatory bodies. It is especially important in Henley when tens of thousands of visitors across the globe arrive in town for the Henley Royal Regatta. After messaging a mother whose child was sick, she conducted an interview in person with her and other mothers whose children were in the affected group. The front-page article was picked up by multiple river campaigner charities and individuals, including Feargal Sharkey, whose repost attracted half a million views on Twitter. It was used as the poster article at a meeting for campaigners held by River Action UK and has been cited in protests held in the town since. Her final entry is about Virginia, a deaf woman who was mistreated by HSBC after she was locked out of her bank account. The bank apologised and offered her financial conversation as a result. Virginia said: “Superb piece of writing. The bank got in touch, promised to train the person who took the call and offered me accessibility options. There’s no doubt the article she wrote has helped.” The article highlighted a flaw in the bank’s accessibility options for disabled people. It also localised the national issue of physical banks closing, which poses a particular problem in the Henley area due to the elderly demographic.