How Cara’s mum found new life after drugs with charity mission

As the mother of the most famous young model in the world, she has been content to remain in the shadows. But no longer: at the age of 61, Pandora Delevingne has begun a new chapter in her life which, though one of privilege, has been disfigured by addiction and depression.

she has, I can disclose, just launched the Bela Vista Project, a charity intent on improving the lives and education of those in a village in Mozambique, the African country where nearly half the population live in poverty.

Pandora, whose three daughters by her property tycoon husband Charles Delevingne are supermodel Cara, actress and model Poppy, and scientist and mother Chloe, tells me that the initiative resulted from a chance meeting with a missionary in south Africa.

‘He’d had a drug problem and did his rehab working in Bela Vista.

‘He said: “Would you like to come and see it?” I said: “I’d love to”. I’ve always been interested in, finally, giving back.’

Pandora believes her heroin addiction dating back to the 1980s but now conquered, stemmed from a form of survivor’s guilt caused by the death, aged just 25, of her older brother, who had cerebral palsy. Only months before arriving in Mozambique, her depression had left her feeling that death was preferable to life. But her first encounters in Bela Vista changed everything. ‘I was just staggered — meeting the vo-vo mommas — the grannies who take care of the children, because the [mothers] work in the fields. They are the most incredible women. I was introduced to a vo-vo momma who looked like she must be 200; she didn’t know how old she was — she had no idea.’ Yet, despite the hardships of crushing poverty and extreme old age, her face radiated gratitude. ‘It made me think, “God, Pandora, you’re not grateful for anything. This woman, who’s got nothing, look at her: she’s glad to be alive, she’s grateful to be here”. That had a major effect on me.’ After surmounting numerous hurdles, Pandora has now launched the charity, with two helpers on the ground whom she visits every three months and whom she pays out of her own pocket. ‘I cover all administration costs. so if you give me £50, all of it will go straight into food parcels; not a penny would come out of it for anything else.’