Merrick

26/08/2026

So true ❤️

Just a reminder and reason 287556 why small local businesses are awesome 🫶🏼

Tag a local business to show them you care, pass it on 🫶🏼✨❤️

23/08/2026

This is Peter and Francis when they were young boys. They were both victims of the infected blood scandal 💔

By the time Sarah was born, her dad Peter, had already become unwell.

Peter and his brother, Francis, received Factor VIII injections to replace clotting proteins that were missing in their blood from birth.

It was a normal health procedure that the 'very lovable' pair went through. But from 1978 to 1985, the pair were given infected blood. It gave them HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

It was a devastating situation for the siblings and for their family.

Sarah, now 46, believes her dad would have found out he was ill around 1983, after going back and forth to the doctors.

Sarah says her parents weren't warned not to have any more children after finding out about the diagnoses. Her brother, Duncan, came along later.

From around the age of 14, Sarah had to become an on-and-off carer to her dad, which carried on well until her adult years. Her life completely changed to accommodate his needs, including giving up work and financial stability.

In one instance, Sarah gave up work as a funeral director to care for her dad who was put into a four month induced coma at St Thomas's Hospital - a coma she was told her dad would never wake up from 😔

Fortunately, doctors tried their best and he eventually woke up, but this wouldn't be the end of the family's suffering.

In 2011, Peter Dudley Clark passed away at the age of just 53 from multiple organ failure, with HIV cited as the cause of death on his death certificate.

He also lived with pancreatic cancer towards the end, an insight in to the complex and immeasurable suffering the victims of the infected blood scandal went through 😢

It was a similar fate for Francis too, who passed away 2000 at the age of just 38. For him, it was in 1985 when he found out about his conditions after having his spleen removed.

Such devastating stories, RIP Peter and Francis 🕊️

20/08/2026

16/07/2026

10/07/2026

I used to think the hardest part was leaving.

Gathering the courage to file. Surviving the court dates. Signing papers that ended a marriage I thought would last forever. I thought once the divorce was final, I'd be free. That I could finally breathe.

I was wrong.

Because now I'm tied to this person forever through the two people I love most in the world. And they know it. They weaponize it. Every custody exchange is warfare. Every text a trap. Every interaction designed to destabilize me just enough that I spend the next three days wondering if I'm the unreasonable one after all.

The divorce didn't end the abuse. It just gave them new ammunition.

Parental alienation. False allegations. Weaponized custody schedules. They charm therapists and lawyers while I look unhinged because I'm reacting to provocations nobody else sees. And when people ask why I'm still so angry when the marriage is over, I can't explain it without sounding bitter.

Because narcissistic abuse doesn't leave bruises you can photograph. It leaves you questioning your own sanity.

Isabella Francis wrote this book for people living in that hell.

It might have saved my life.

1. You're not co-parenting. You're parallel parenting.
Co-parenting requires two healthy adults. You don't have that. And that's okay to say out loud. Francis teaches parallel parenting - minimal contact, businesslike only, rigid boundaries. You parent during your time. They parent during theirs. You stop trying to coordinate because every attempt becomes ammunition. Not ideal. But survivable. And right now survivable is enough.

2. Every interaction is evidence. Document everything.
They lie. They rewrite history. They build narratives from nothing. Your only defense is proof. Screenshot texts. Save emails. Record exchanges where it's legal. Not necessarily for court - for *yourself.* Because when they gaslight you about what actually happened, you need something solid to hold onto. You are not losing your mind. Write it down.

3. Gray rock keeps you sane.
They feed on your reactions. Your pain is their fuel. Gray rock means becoming uninteresting - answer practical questions about the kids only. No emotion. No personal details. No reactions. Just facts. It feels wrong. It will feel cold and clinical and nothing like the person you actually are. But it starves the cycle. And starving the cycle is how you eventually get your life back.

4. Your kids need you stable. Not destroyed trying to save them.
You cannot protect them during their custody time. I know. I know how much that hurts to read. But you can be the safe parent they come home to. The one who doesn't use them as pawns. Who models calm. Who builds a home where they can breathe. Being healthy matters more than being heroic. Your kids need you here. Whole. Stay.

5. They won't change. Heal anyway.
No apology is coming. No acknowledgment. No transformation. Your healing cannot wait for their redemption. It has to happen despite them. Around them. Without them. Therapy. Boundaries. A life rebuilt so fully that they occupy the smallest possible space in it. That's not giving up. That's the whole victory.

I'm writing this for the person standing in a parking lot after a custody exchange, hands shaking, wondering if they imagined the whole thing.

BOOK: https://amzn.to/4eVu5xA

09/07/2026

23/06/2026

On one day out of 365, the statue of Alan Turing in Sackville Gardens in Manchester city centre bursts into colour as people across Manchester come together to honour his memory on his birthday ❤️

Every year the bench is piled high with flowers in recognition of the man considered to be an icon n two sub-cultures, as well as being a symbol of the injustices faced by gay people in Britain's all-too-recent past, Turing is a hero to the computer science and mathematics community.

Tributes have begun to pour in this morning and this is how the statue currently looks on this beautiful summers day.

He will never be forgotten.

22/06/2026

17/06/2026

While many of us look forward to the England game, major sporting events can bring increased fear and risk for people experiencing domestic violence or abuse.

If it's happening to you, or you're worried about someone else, help is available. And you don’t have to wait for an emergency to get help.

Find out how to get support, and spot the signs of domestic violence.

Visit https://nhs.uk/live-well/getting-help-for-domestic-violence/