Tribute to a true rebel with a life changing cause
YOU may not have heard of environmental campaigner Fi Radford.
But like many unsung heroes, behind the scenes her life is a remarkable story of someone who has tried to make the world a better place.
Fi married her childhood sweetheart Andrew after they met at 16 and two sons, John and Richard, followed.
After she worked as an academic librarian, the couple retired to France but 10 years ago she convinced her husband to move to Bristol so she could take up climate emergency activism.
At that point she “never had so much as a parking fine” but that changed when she decided to join Extinction Rebellion protesters. As she was carted off by four policemen, it was the first of several arrests amid relentless targeting of big business and Government, but always done with a smile.
“It was something I thought I’d never do,” she said. “But I am afraid and I’m angry about the environmental and ecological disaster we are heading towards.”
She delivered a Tedx Talk entitled “What did you do in the Climate Crisis, Grandma?” and called for “an army of rebel retirees” as her generation had little to lose by sticking their necks out.
“It’s time to reboot retirement. This is not the time to rest on our laurels, spend the children’s inheritance or to stay at home feeling unwanted and lonely,” she said.
“We have never been more needed and more valuable.” Her final actions took place in September, where she was dressed as a forensic scientist at a “crime scene” created in Bristol . From there she went to London to join the Extinction Rebellion action but was taken ill on her return. I first got to know about Fi through a friendship made during lockdown after my partner and I put notes through the doors on our street asking if anyone needed help.
Anne Shephard, 82, from number 16, is her cousin – but more like a sister. Even through the brief calls I had with Fi, her warmth and passion shone through.
Aged 72, Fi lost a short battle with cancer a few weeks ago. It would have been a lot easier for her to see out her retirement in France but she said that, for her, “activism is the antidote to the despair.
“Do all that you can in the active years you have left. We owe it to the children to leave them the best legacy we can – a sustaining, diverse and inhabitable planet.”
Fi Radford: January 26, 1948 – November 22, 2020
There was relentless targeting of business, but with a smile