Look What May Brought: Awards, Manchester, and a Birthday I'll Never Forget

Look What May Brought: Awards, Manchester, and a Birthday I'll Never Forget

May has always had my whole heart. Not in a dramatic, overclaiming way, just quietly, reliably, tenderly. I've never been a Summer person. Give me Spring over heatwaves any day. The light in May feels different. Softer and more honest somehow. And this year, that light brought more than I expected.

This May marked my birthday, always a moment that invites reflection, and it also brought two things I'm still processing: attending the Saint Mary's SARC Annual Conference in Manchester (ok, that was end April, but close enough), and being Highly Commended in the Gamechanger category at the Central South Business Awards. Together, they made this one of the most meaningful months in ReConnected Life's history.

Manchester, The Bridgewater Hall, and 40 Years of SARCs

In April, just weeks ago, I was in Manchester at The Bridgewater Hall for the Saint Mary's Centre Annual Conference 2026. The theme was A Shared Vision: Reflecting 40 Years of SARCs, Responding to Sexual Violence and Shaping the Future, and I don't think I quite understood how much it would mean to me until I was sitting in that room.

Forty years since the first Sexual Assault Referral Centre opened in the UK. Forty years of professionals, forensic physicians, police officers, health workers, therapeutic support providers, safeguarding teams, showing up for survivors in their most vulnerable moments. Forty years of building something that, frankly, should never have needed to exist, but does, and matters enormously.

Being in that space, alongside policy makers, criminal justice professionals, and people who have dedicated their careers to survivor-centred care, felt important. Grounding. It reminded me that the work I do, the courses, the community, the conversations, exists within a much larger ecosystem of people who refuse to let survivors fall through the cracks.

And yet, even in that room full of people committed to the cause, we were all circling the same truth: the gaps are still enormous.

The Gap That Oughtn't Exist

Here is something I want to say plainly, because it matters: there should NOT be a healing gap.

When survivors say they've experienced something bad, we don't only need to believe them, we need to support them. And right now, we are failing at that. The gap between disclosure and access to therapy is terrifyingly long, over two years in some cases, and very much a postcode lottery. Where you live determines how quickly you can access help. That is not acceptable. It was not acceptable forty years ago, and it is not acceptable now.

Taste of Recovery was built to bridge that gap, a trauma-informed, self-guided mini-course that survivors can access immediately, privately, and at their own pace, while they wait for longer-term support. It was first endorsed by RSVP in 2017 and has since been licensed by nearly 20 organisations across the UK. In 2024, Swansea University became the first higher education institution to adopt it, offering it to students as part of their early-access wellbeing support.

But there is still so much more to do. Manchester reminded me of that. And it also reminded me that I'm not doing this alone.

Highly Commended. In the Gamechanger Category. In Southampton.

On 13th May 2026, I sat in a room in Southampton at the Platinum Media Group Ltd Central South Business Awards and was announced as Highly Commended in the Gamechanger category. I was a finalist across Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey, the Isle of Wight, and West Sussex, representing West Sussex.

I'll be honest with you: it felt surreal. It still does.

Not because I don't believe in the work, I do, with everything I have. But because I am, at the end of the day, one person running a tiny business that exists to bridge a gap that oughtn't even exist. And to be recognised for that, in a room full of incredible businesses doing incredible things, felt both humbling and quietly fierce.

Gamechanger. I keep turning that word over.

I started ReConnected Life because I couldn't find the thing I needed when I needed it. I was a survivor, navigating a system that wasn't built with me in mind, trying to heal in the spaces between the formal support that was supposed to be there but often wasn't. So I built something. And now, nearly a decade on, that something has reached thousands of survivors, been trusted by nearly 20 UK organisations, and is sitting in a Highly Commended certificate on my desk.

It means a lot. More than I know how to say properly.

The People Who Made This Possible

I don't believe in doing this alone, and I certainly haven't. This month, this whole chapter, really, has been shaped by people who showed up for me and for the mission, and I want to name them.

Natalie Montagnani, whose initial nomination for the Dynamic Awards set this whole awards journey in motion. I wouldn't have been in that room without her.

Countess Jo Child and all the Co-Women, whose belief in what women can build when they support each other has been a quiet but powerful force.

My Balanceology cohort and Jayne Morris MCC, who held space for me to grow into the version of myself that could actually receive recognition without immediately deflecting it.

Hannah Swierstra and Sophie Boulderstone, who have offered three years of steady, genuine support, the kind that doesn't ask for anything special in return.

Emma Leadley, who built the websites for the charities, SARCs and universities that now carry Taste of Recovery out into the world. None of that reach happens without them.

Thank you. All of you. From the bottom of my heart.

What Comes Next

I'm still sitting with all of this. The conference, the award, the birthday, the enormity of what it means to be doing this work and to have it seen.

But sitting with it doesn't mean standing still. If you represent a charity, a university, a SARC, or any organisation where survivors are currently waiting for support, please get in touch. I'd love to talk about how Taste of Recovery could be part of the bridge you offer them. You can reach me at
.

And if you're a survivor yourself, reading this and wondering what it would feel like to not be so alone in the in-between, The Sanctuary exists for exactly that. It's a gentle, structured community where we do the ongoing, real-life work of healing together. Monthly live AMA sessions, guided journaling, daily gratitude prompts, direct access to me, group calls, a private space, and so much more. £25 a month, cancel anytime.

May brought a lot. I'm grateful for every tender, surprising, hard-won bit of it.

You're not behind. You're becoming. And so, it turns out, is this work.

With love, Emily x