You tell us about YOUR inspirational women...
READERS RESPOND TO M.E.N. LIST OF 100 AMAZING FEMALE ROLE MODELS
THE M.E.N.’s list of 100 inspirational women was unveiled during Greater Manchester Business Week.
From peace activist Dr Erinma Bell to entrepreneur Victoria Molyneux and England football captain Stephanie Jane Houghton, we highlighted some of the women who are pushing boundaries, shaping our city and offering role models to the next generation.
But readers let us know about many more women whose work and experiences deserve recognition. Here are six who stand out: Dr Gill Green is dedicated to creating a world where suicide is not an option, and where communities know how to treat people in suicidal distress.
She is co-founder and CEO of STORM, a not-for-profit social business which trains communities and organisations to recognise and prevent self-harm tendencies, and help people who have attempted to hurt themselves. STORM has educated people across the globe, from Australia to Bangladesh, and has doubtless helped save many lives.
Dr Green qualified as a mental health nurse before joining a research team at the University of Manchester in 1997. The actress has pushed the boundaries of TV drama over her 20-year career. She played British soap operas’ first permanent transgender character, Hayley Cropper, for 16 years in Coronation Street.
After leaving in 2014, she has starred in BAFTA-award winning Happy Valley, E4’s Cucumber and is currently stealing the show as rape victim Trish Winterman in Broadchurch. Karen Johnson was eight months pregnant when doctors told her both her unborn child Mikey and her 18-month-old son Simon had Hunter syndrome, a terminal degenerative condition. Both boys died aged 12.
Despite the trauma, Karen launched her own charity, GEM Appeal, to stop other children dying from Hunter’s. Twenty-five years later it has raised £2.7 million for research and saved many lives.
Karen, from Bamford, Rochdale, has been given a Pride of Britain Special Recognition Award. Joanne’s daughter Millie died aged nine months old after a choking accident at nursery. Following the tragedy, she set up charity Millie’s Trust to make first aid training available to everyone, no matter what their situation is.
Joanne and husband Dan campaigned for Millie’s Law, passed in September 2016, which requires all newly qualified nursery workers to be trained in first aid.
Joanne has been named ITV’s Lorraine Inspirational Woman of the Year. Flic Everett has been a journalist and broadcaster for 25 years.
After a stint aged 25 as an M.E.N. columnist, she has written for most national papers and presented for the BBC and Key 103. She recently launched a travel website for fearful flyers, roadrailandsea.co.uk, became editor of Vegan Living and published her first novel.
From interviewing former World War Two Land Girls to offering advice as Company magazine’s agony aunt for 12 years, she has inspired and entertained countless readers. Dr Catherine White OBE runs one of the UK’s leading specialist centres for victims of rape, St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre.
She has transformed how rape victims are treated and cared for, and has campaigned for wider awareness of sexual violence.
She has trained sexual assault examiners across the world for the UN and UNICEF, improving the lives of countless vulnerable women.