Working girls… more than your average 9-5.

FreshTies All Year Santa’s latest visit was to a former working girl, who has turned her life around, and now helping other girls avoid getting into this so called ‘industry’.

The volunteer Santa, Nicola Williams, presented this lady with a designer handbag donated by Laura Tenison, founder of JoJo Maman Bebe, at the premises of the Cardiff charity, Women’s Turnaround. The following is written in the words of the volunteer Santa.

“The lady told me that 10 years ago she broke up with her ex partner and everything seemed to be falling apart. At the time, becoming a working girl seemed like an ‘opportunity’. I personally couldn’t see how but she explained that she just wanted to feel wanted. The lady said, ‘If somebody told me at 16 that I was going to be a working girl I would have laughed’. At first, she liked the attention. Then she was given drugs, and had to keep up the work to pay for them. She really needed the drugs to block everything out, like being assaulted and abused. She also had four children. She was disowned by her family.”

The turnaround.

“Her son was having a child, which would be her grandson. She told me, ‘My son said he didn’t want a smackhead as a Nan to his sons. That woke me up and was my motivation to get out of it’.”

“She got great support and help from the charity, Women’s Turnaround project in Cardiff. Now she’s off the drugs and talks to teenage girls who might end up in the same situation. It also helps her. She is also setting up a group for teenagers with the Women’s Turnaround project as an inside perspective can see things other people don’t.”

“Her final words were, ‘People don’t really understand. People think working girls are scum. They receive such bad press and, they don’t need that. There are some lovely girls out there. MOST GIRLS JUST WANT TO BE LOVED’.

For me, I saw that at the bottom of all this was a just a basic human need to be wanted.”


If you a charity / group that work with individuals who could share an experience – and would like a surprise gift? Or, if you would like to be a Santa, contact FreshTies All Year Santa at www.freshties.com .