MARGOT’S SWEET MISSION
Her act of kindness brightened these Youngcare residents’ day
Margot Robbie’s big heart and generous nature were on full display recently when she dropped in to surprise the residents, their families and the carers of a Youngcare disability share house in Brisbane – a local Aussie charity that has become very close to her heart.
CARING BARBIE
In the touching images taken, Margot, 33, is beaming as she playfully poses with residents, laughing and sharing jokes.
Youngcare’s national ambassador and Today Extra
host Sylvia Je reys highlighted the secret visit by sharing the images on her Instagram.
She revealed that during the Barbie star’s hour at the home, she talked and interacted with the residents, including Brian and his sister Tash, asking them about their experience with Youngcare and life with an acquired disability.
“Margot just basically popped over to say hello to the residents, she arrived on the day and as I said, it was a very big surprise... the boys were ecstatic to see her,” Tash said in an interview with Nine Honey.
“It was actually such a genuine day. She came in, she actually truly wanted to listen to their stories. She truly wanted to get a real understanding of what Youngcare does and the
‘It was a very big surprise... the boys were ecstatic’
work that we do for people with high physical support needs.
“With disabilities, sometimes communication is a little bit harder for some people. ere was never a moment that she didn’t stop and listen.”
Youngcare CEO Greg Johnson agreed that the actress’ visit to the share house was a highlight. “To have Margot Robbie make the time to drop in to one of our Youngcare homes was simply extraordinary. Her visit was all about the residents, their families and the carers, showing genuine interest in their stories,” he said.
e star has kept her work with the charity, which provides housing solutions for young adults with high care disabilities, under the radar for years until the Golden Globes in January, when she used a red carpet moment to toast to the charity “which is close to my heart” and simultaneously raised awareness of their incredible work. Bravo Margot!
Whatever your idea of a nightmare is, think again. is is how Holly Deanejohns remembers her time in the notorious ai prison known as the Bangkok Hilton.
“You go into survival mode,” Holly tells Woman’s Day.“e things I saw, I couldn’t believe. You’d look into [other prisoners’] eyes and there was nothing there any more. at was scary as that could be you someday.”
Holly, now 52, was arrested in 2000 after being caught with 30 grams of heroin and spent seven years at Lard Yao Women’s Correctional Institution in Chatuchak, ailand.
After growing up in a violent household where drugs were always around, Holly’s own addiction began when she was just 15 after being given heroin by her mother. “I wish I’d never tried [it] because that was the beginning of the end for me,” she says.
SURVIVAL MODE
Charged with drug tra cking and possession alongside her friend and fellow drug smuggler Bob Halliwell, Holly ended up being the longest incarcerated Australian prisoner returned from Asia.
Nicole Kidman’s famous 1989 miniseries Bangkok Hilton showed the grim conditions inside the prison, but Holly says the reality was even worse.
“It was sweltering in that cell with everyone’s bodies pressed against each other,” she says, describing the experience of living alongside 2000 inmates with no food, personal space or medical care.
“Every day you were ghting for everything. If you didn’t get to the shower in time, there was no water left. [It was the same with] food, toilet paper, bottled water. A lot of people were thieves – not because they wanted to, but they had to.”
e moment she watched a pregnant inmate rummaging through a rubbish bin for food still haunts Holly.
“I had a visit that day and received a punnet of strawberries. Most of them were rotten so I threw them away. But I watched her get them out,” she says. “I told her not to eat them and gave her something [else] to eat. You’d see that daily.”
Holly, who also served time in Australia on drug charges, admits she spent her rst few months in Lard Yao abusing drugs to cope. But 10 months into her sentence, she stopped and has been clean ever since.
“I woke up and looked at my surroundings and that icked a switch for me. I thought, ‘What am I doing? I’ve ruined my life,’” she says. “I knew I was done.”
KIND STRANGERS
Frustrated at not being able to understand the language, Holly began studying ai and learned to sew and made silk
owers and clothes. She also became friends with ai inmates and “foreigners” like herself and is still in contact with many of them.
Everything at the prison had to be bought by the inmates. Visits from her brother Mark and late sister Amy were also a huge support for Holly and they would bring her food and other supplies, while visiting Aussie tourists would also help.
“e visits I loved were the genuine people who came just because they knew I was there,” she says. “It made my day because you’re getting news of
‘Every day you were fighting for everything’
what’s going on outside – we didn’t know 9/11 had happened until two weeks later.”
In late 2007, Holly’s prison transfer request was accepted, and she was moved to Bandyup Women’s Prison in Perth, where she served another ve years. After spending 12 years behind bars, on December 6, 2012, Holly was nally free.
RELEASE & RECOVERY
Holly has spent the years since then writing about her horri c prison experience, her recovery and desire to return to ailand. After she was freed, Holly also reunited with the “love of her life” Stephen Wallace, who sadly passed away in 2023 from cancer. “I thought that being in a ai prison was the worst thing to happen to me, but it didn’t compare to living each day with the knowledge that my time with Stephen was running out,” she writes in Holly’s Hell.
Now trained in youth work and counselling, Holly wants to help others overcome their addictions and warns of the dangers. “I used to think I didn’t have many regrets. But I suppose I do,” she says. “I’ve spent about half my life in jail because of that drug. I can’t get back the years I wasted inside prisons.”