When the loss of a child is a driving force
THE MOTHER of Miriam Hyman, the 32-year-old killed in the London 7/7 bombings has said that the pain of losing her never fades.
Mavis and John Hyman were enjoying their retirement when their younger daughter was killed in the terrorist attack.
“She was my child. She was a special girl,” Mrs Hyman said.
“Miriam managed to squeeze the brightness out of everything. It is very painful that she is gone but that pain is our driving force.”
The 87-year-old was the recipient of this year’s Jewish Care Topland Business Award for her work in establishing the Miriam Hyman Memorial Trust.
The trust has helped to open an eyecare centre in India, which she said “is a place of hope, healing and rehabilitation for children who need it, irrespective of the ability to pay”.
The trust also runs a programme which educates students about extremism, through Miriam’s story.
Mrs Hyman said: “The work we do in her memory makes our pain manageable.
“We teach young people about compassion, and empathy, we get them to see, even in the face of something so negative like losing our daughter, we can make a positive difference.
“It directly addresses the way Miriam lost her life and was developed in association with the UCL Institute of Education and Miriam’s old school, Copthall.” She said it was “unbearable” to hear about other terrorist attacks that have claimed lives in the same way as her daughters.
“Each time we see something it opens the wounds and it is hard. But we feel the work we are doing is important and preventative.”
The award was presented to her on Wednesday, at a lunch attended by 700 people, in central London.
On accepting the award from Jewish Care she said: “An award from an organisation which leads by example is very special and deeply moving.”
Following the award Laura Kuenssberg, political editor for the BBC, spoke publicly for the first time about the abuse aimed at her by online trolls.
Speaking after the BBC was forced to hire a security guard for her protection she told guests: “I didn’t aspire to have the finger pointed at me. What they are trying to do is silence me.”
Interviewed by her boss, James Harding, director of BBC News, she said there was no chance the campaign by trolls would work.
“No matter how unpleasant and personal it might be, it is not as bad as what other journalists face around the world in much more difficult circumstances.”
When asked about the current government’s position she said someone in Theresa May’s cabinet had made a joke about the government being “weak and stable”.
Ms Kuenssberg, who is not Jewish, said she could see Mrs May remaining in Downing Street until 2019 and suggested previous Tory governments would not have been as forgiving of their leader.
“In another time she’d have been gone on June 9.”
When asked whether the party leaders were different when the cameras were turned off, Ms Kuenssberg said Jeremy Corbyn and Mrs May were more themselves than previous leaders.
“The camera is not always fair. Corbyn says what he thinks much of the time and is always one step away from tying what he is saying into his world view.
“May is much warmer in private and relaxed,” although only “a little bit more relaxed” she said.
Ms Kuenssberg said she had worked to convince Bex Bailey, a well-known and well-respected Labour activist, to waive her anonymity and tell her story as an alleged rape victim.
It is the latest revelation in Westminster about its problem with sexual harassment.
She said: “It is hard to tell where it is going to end up. There has been a stopper on the bottle for a long time.”
Referring to a list of claims about questionable behaviour from ministers and MPs she said there was a “very clear” generational divide in how people were responding.
“It is important for people to get a handle on the seriousness of what is happening. We need people to feel they can come forward.”
The lunch raised £250,000 for Jewish Care.
Miriam managed to squeeze the brightness out of everything’