RACHEL SALUTES COVID HEROES
Countdown star on reaching out to battered women trapped in a nightmare by lockdown
FOR Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev, the past four months of lockdown have been full of happiness and positivity. Their baby daughter, Maven, is a constant source of joy and the Countdown star and former Strictly dance professional have enjoyed connecting with their local community on daily walks in London.
It’s been great for little Maven’s cultural identity too, because her Russian grandma, Galina, 60, has been stranded with them since the Covid-19 crisis struck.
So the seven-month-old tot is well on her way to becoming bilingual and embracing her Russian roots.
“Galina came over in March, for a month’s holiday, but then we hit lockdown,” says 34-year-old Rachel. “She only had her winter clothes so had to buy more as she’s been going through the seasons!
“But it’s been lovely to have her help and it’s great for Mave to have had all three of us around all the time.
“Galina is from the far east of Russia and doesn’t speak any English, nor do the family over there, so it’s really important that Mave is bilingual.
“I speak some Russian but she’s certainly got used to hearing her dad and grandma speaking it.”
The Countdown numbers queen who wed Pasha, 40, last year after they met on Strictly in 2013, went on: “Mave has inherited the national love of pickles too!
“One of the first things she ever ate was a massive big gherkin. She grabbed it, stuck it in her mouth and sucked on it for a good 20 minutes without pulling that lemon-sucking face.
“She will turn her nose up at nice things like melon and strawberries but with pickles, she’s straight in there. She’s really going to miss her grandma when she leaves.”
But while Rachel has been relishing all the enforced family time, she is well aware that millions of people have been really suffering throughout the pandemic – and how much they rely on local lockdown heroes.
It’s why she is fronting the 2020 National Lottery Awards which honour the UK’s leading lottery-funded projects working in the arts, education, health, environment, sport, heritage and community. Because this year, for the first time, they will be honouring individuals within those organisations who have made an extraordinary impact in their community during the pandemic.
Rachel said: “Thanks to National Lottery players around £600million has been made available to support communities during the crisis. But this year because everything is turned upside down we want the awards to honour the people within those projects who adapted so quickly and gave extra help.
“It’s a real chance to say thank you and the winners in each category will win £3,000 for their organisation and a National Lottery Award trophy.”
One of the projects that has particularly impressed Rachel is the Woman’s Trust, a London-based mental health charity, providing free counselling and therapy for women who have experienced domestic abuse. In response to Covid, they have been organising group digital well-being sessions as well as doing one-on-one therapy sessions online.
RACHEL revealed: “I’ve been supporting a good friend who I didn’t know was in a situation of domestic violence for a number of years. And, while I can’t go into specifics, I know the Covid situation has made things much, much more difficult for women in her situation.
“It’s been so hard for them without direct access to support services. I saw a poster recently that said, ‘Domestic abusers have always worked from home’ and that’s so true.
“There is no outlet at the moment. People are trapped at home, the kids are not at school and police and social services are running a limited service.
“These campaigners do an incredible job but have often had similar experiences and their own stories are hard to listen to.
“So many survivors of domestic abuse will want to say a big thank you to the people who’ve gone the extra mile to help them.”
Rachel also admires the work of the Cultivate London Urban Farm and Social Enterprise trust. It sponsors and trains unemployed young people in landscaping and horticulture, while engaging communities in food growing and changing the way they think about their fresh produce and where it comes from.
She says: “Getting outdoors for a walk every day and seeing nature has been so important for us.
“We live near Hyde Park and there is a little vegetable patch there and I know how transforming gardening can be. My own mum has really got into gardening since lockdown. It’s a lovely, therapeutic thing.
“But there are so many amazing National Lottery-funded projects out there and wonderful unsung heroes. So the awards are a great way to celebrate positivity when there is such a lot of negativity out
‘I saw a poster recently that said domestic abusers have always worked from home – it’s so true’
there.” Rachel knows that all too well having been subjected to “hideous abuse” and physical threats after criticising Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
The maths graduate, who grew up in Essex, identifies as Jewish but never went to synagogue as a child and is an atheist. But researching her heritage – her family came over in the pogroms – gave her a better understanding of anti-Semitism.
“It’s always there and in a time of turmoil when you need a scapegoat it is easy to wake,” she said.
But expressing her concerns on Twitter in 2018 led to such horrific trolling she is now campaigning to change the toxicity of social media. She says: “I’ve had my eyes opened by the anti-Semitic attacks and am the patron of a non-profit organisation called the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. We are dealing with a whole infrastructure of baddies who are using the internet to make money and sow hatred – be it anti-Muslim hatred, anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-vaccine or other misinformation.
“A lot of people are intentionally misleading others to make money and social media companies aren’t doing anything about it.
“They make all these great promises but when it comes to reporting really, really high-profile prolific liars they don’t do anything about it.
“A recent Twitter poll asked users if they could go back in time and stop it being invented would they do it and the majority said yes. Because people like being able to connect to others and make friends through social media but it has become really toxic. You can’t have a nuanced discussion without being trolled or cancelled – it is anger or nothing. Something has gone very wrong.The social etiquette we apply offline needs to be applied online – but instead it’s gone the other way. So I am committed to CCDH and trying to change that by promoting positive initiatives to counter the hate.” Rachel also believes new Labour leader Keir Starmer is committed to tackling anti-Semitism.
“I’m a centrist. Not Labour or Conservative, not tribal,” she says. “But I think the independent report, when published, will show there has been a huge problem. “This has unleashed a whole can of worms that won’t go away for a generation. It has done real, real damage and will require an extra effort to change some of these misinformed views. But, from some of Keir’s actions and the team he has chosen, I believe we are not in immediate danger any more… and people DID feel in real danger before.” Rachel has finally returned to work and is taking Maven to the Countdown studios in Salford for filming.
“It’s all very different with social distancing,” she says. “There are two-metre stickers everywhere, everyone has masks and gloves on, we have got more locally based contestants, and, of course, no audience.
“We’re all adapting though and Mave takes it in her stride. She is such a happy, sociable little thing – really chilled. Although not the other night – one of our first in Manchester. She wouldn’t go to sleep for the first time ever.
“I was up at midnight with her walking round Media City in my jogging bottoms with her in a sling.
“I was going, ‘Look, there’s BBC Sport, there’s Pudsey, there’s the Blue Peter Garden… now please go to sleep.’
“But I’ve realised it’s because her two front teeth are coming through – I felt them the other night.”
It’s another reminder how long lockdown has been, for those enjoying it and those in need of support.
Grandma Galina will be heading home when flights resume next month but Pasha, whose “Here Come the Boys” UK tour has been pushed back until next year, will continue talking to his little pickle in Russian.
“He has certainly been at home a lot more than he expected this year,” says Rachel. “But he is really enjoying our family time and looking after the baby.
“Friends have said to me ‘She’s going to be a daddy’s girl’, but that’s fine.”
‘You can’t have a nuanced discussion without being trolled or cancelled – it is anger or nothing’