Today I’ve been mainlining tea to try and stave off the utter exhaustion that comes from getting up before dawn to drive three hours to work.
I do this commute every few weeks so I can spend Sunday night with my boyfriend, who lives about 140 miles away from me. We only get to see each other at weekends so, knackering as it is, it’s worth the early start to spend that precious extra night with him.
Long-distance relationships aren’t easy. We have to plan when we’re going to see each other weeks in advance and it’s hard missing him, and not being able to get a hug after a hard day at work. Phone calls just can’t replace actually being with someone. But we just get on and do it because, for now at least, it’s the only option.
And, difficult as I find it, I know that many other couples have it much harder. In the course of sourcing features for magazines I’ve spoken to women who have managed to make relationships work when their partners live on the other side of the world, or when they’ve faced fierce opposition from family and friends.
There are the women who’ve been heartbroken when they discovered their man was cheating but decided to give them one more chance and I’ve even spoken to a couple of women who met their men in prison and stuck by them until they got out.
It constantly amazes, and inspires me, how hard people are prepared to work in the name of love. And the good news is that magazines never tire of these stories. So if you’ve battled against the odds to keep your relationship alive, get in touch.
Monday 25 October 2010
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Every parent's worst nightmare
When Cassie took her sick baby boy to hospital she just wanted doctors to make him better. But instead she and her partner, Wayne, were accused of harming their little boy and he was taken away from them.
That visit to the hospital became the beginning of a year-long nightmare as the couple fought to prove their innocence and get their son back. In their darkest moments they even began to suspect one another.
Doctors finally found that little Cavern was suffering from a rare medical condition which was causing the symptoms. A judge ordered social services to hand the couple their baby back.
Although they’ve got their boy back the pain they felt at losing him for all those months, and being accused of harming him, will never leave them. Cassie came to us because she wanted her story to be heard and for others to know what the couple had been through.
We were only too happy to help and placed her story with The Mirror and in Chat magazine. Cassie was delighted with the coverage and the sensitive way in which her story was told.
View the story as it appeared in The Mirror here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/real-life/2010/09/09/each-of-us-feared-the-other-had-beaten-our-baby-115875-22547119/
That visit to the hospital became the beginning of a year-long nightmare as the couple fought to prove their innocence and get their son back. In their darkest moments they even began to suspect one another.
Doctors finally found that little Cavern was suffering from a rare medical condition which was causing the symptoms. A judge ordered social services to hand the couple their baby back.
Although they’ve got their boy back the pain they felt at losing him for all those months, and being accused of harming him, will never leave them. Cassie came to us because she wanted her story to be heard and for others to know what the couple had been through.
We were only too happy to help and placed her story with The Mirror and in Chat magazine. Cassie was delighted with the coverage and the sensitive way in which her story was told.
View the story as it appeared in The Mirror here:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/real-life/2010/09/09/each-of-us-feared-the-other-had-beaten-our-baby-115875-22547119/
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Dramatic first dates
Victoria got in touch a while ago with her story about a date which took a very dramatic turn...
Years after leaving college an old school-friend got in touch and asked her out. She agreed, and they arranged to go to the cinema.
All was going well, until halfway through the film Victoria suddenly lost sensation in the right-hand-side of her body.
Understandably, she was terrified. Her date was engrossed in the film and completely oblivious but she managed to fumble in her phone and send him a text message saying she needed to be taken to hospital.
He rushed her to A&E where Victoria was told she’d suffered a stroke. She broke down in tears from the shock and as Colin held her in his arms she realised she loved him.
Thankfully, Victoria has now made a full recovery, and the close call made the couple realise we were meant to be together. They’re now engaged and planning to get married next year.
We successfully placed Victoria’s story in Love It magazine – Victoria’s story appeared in last week’s edition.
As first date stories go, it’s a pretty unusual one. Have you had any dramatic or crazy first dates?
Years after leaving college an old school-friend got in touch and asked her out. She agreed, and they arranged to go to the cinema.
All was going well, until halfway through the film Victoria suddenly lost sensation in the right-hand-side of her body.
Understandably, she was terrified. Her date was engrossed in the film and completely oblivious but she managed to fumble in her phone and send him a text message saying she needed to be taken to hospital.
He rushed her to A&E where Victoria was told she’d suffered a stroke. She broke down in tears from the shock and as Colin held her in his arms she realised she loved him.
Thankfully, Victoria has now made a full recovery, and the close call made the couple realise we were meant to be together. They’re now engaged and planning to get married next year.
We successfully placed Victoria’s story in Love It magazine – Victoria’s story appeared in last week’s edition.
As first date stories go, it’s a pretty unusual one. Have you had any dramatic or crazy first dates?
Friday 8 October 2010
Domestic Violence
We get a lot of women getting in touch to talk about very serious topics, one of the most common of which is domestic abuse.
It's shocked me since starting this job just how many women seem to have suffered at the hands of their partners at some point in their lives. And what's most upsetting is how many of these have never pressed charges, so those men have effectively got away with it.
It's also frustrating because, for legal reasons, it makes it difficult for these women to speak out publicly in a magazine or newspaper article about what happened to them.
Of course I can completely understand the many reasons why women may not feel able to go to the police to report abusive boyfriends - these situations are never simple. But it's always great when someone gets in touch who has taken their ex partner to court, as then we can tell the whole story, and hopefully inspire other women in similar situations to do the same.
It's shocked me since starting this job just how many women seem to have suffered at the hands of their partners at some point in their lives. And what's most upsetting is how many of these have never pressed charges, so those men have effectively got away with it.
It's also frustrating because, for legal reasons, it makes it difficult for these women to speak out publicly in a magazine or newspaper article about what happened to them.
Of course I can completely understand the many reasons why women may not feel able to go to the police to report abusive boyfriends - these situations are never simple. But it's always great when someone gets in touch who has taken their ex partner to court, as then we can tell the whole story, and hopefully inspire other women in similar situations to do the same.
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Waiting for the wedding night
I'm always dreaming up new ideas for interesting stories and earlier this week, on a whim, I started looking for women who've waited until the wedding night to sleep with their partner.
For our grandparents' generation, there would have been nothing unusual about waiting but in this day and age it's almost unheard of and I thought it'd make a good feature.
It's not something I could do, although I know a few people who have (they tend to be the ones who get married young I find!). Usually it's for religious reasons but I was hoping to find a woman who'd chosen to wait for a different reason - maybe they were both virgins, or wanted to keep it special for "the one". Whatever the reason, it's certainly an interesting issue and something that, in today's culture, seems quite romantic and old-fashioned.
Someone else must have been having the same thought because the very next day a request from a glossy magazine popped into my inbox - looking for a woman who hadn't slept with her partner before the wedding night. Maybe they'd picked up on my thought waves...
For our grandparents' generation, there would have been nothing unusual about waiting but in this day and age it's almost unheard of and I thought it'd make a good feature.
It's not something I could do, although I know a few people who have (they tend to be the ones who get married young I find!). Usually it's for religious reasons but I was hoping to find a woman who'd chosen to wait for a different reason - maybe they were both virgins, or wanted to keep it special for "the one". Whatever the reason, it's certainly an interesting issue and something that, in today's culture, seems quite romantic and old-fashioned.
Someone else must have been having the same thought because the very next day a request from a glossy magazine popped into my inbox - looking for a woman who hadn't slept with her partner before the wedding night. Maybe they'd picked up on my thought waves...
Tuesday 5 October 2010
Hello and welcome
Hello and welcome to my blog. Over the course of my posts I'll be explaining the process of telling your story to the media as well as giving readers a tantalising insight into day to day life in our office (it involves a lot of tea and biscuits). I'll be posting about stories we're looking for, as well as stories we've succesfully placed in magazines and newspapers. And in between I hope I'll have some time just to blog about things that take my fancy along the way. Feel free to get in touch at any point, I'd love to hear from you - alice@medavia.co.uk.
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