Swindon charity sends families with trauma on holiday

With the money they raise through charity shops in Swindon, the Swindon Sisters Alliance sends families who have experienced trauma on holiday

A charity has sent 250 families who have experienced trauma away on holiday.

The Swindon Sisters Alliance was set up by Emma King in 2020, after her sister Julie Butcher was murdered by her estranged husband.

She hoped her experiences of grief and trauma might help others.

With the money it raises through charity shops in Swindon, it has sent families on holiday to get away from abusive situations.

She has now opened the third charity shop.

Ms King, who is now 41, was only 19 months apart from her sister.

Growing up, the pair were very close.

But when Ms Butcher was 25, she was killed by her former husband Richard Butcher.

Ms King remembers the phone call Butcher made telling her to go and help her sister.

"He phoned me up - 'Something has happened - go and be with your sister, she needs you,'" Ms King said.

When Ms Butcher was 25, she was killed by her former husband Richard Butcher

But when Ms King got to Ms Butcher's home she was already dead.

Butcher pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court to serve a minimum of 13 years in prison.

For years, she was unable to leave her home, crippled with fear and depression.

But nearly two decades on, Ms King has just opened their third charity shop, giving more families the chance to go on holiday.

Jess, 39, has lived in Swindon her whole life and is one of the women who was helped by the charity.

As a child she suffered years of abuse and later went from one abusive relationship to another.

She said: "Seeing your mum being beaten up and going into relationships and being beaten up yourself, you allow it to happen because that is what you have seen growing up - every relationship you get into is the same pattern."

As an adult she went to therapy and finally had the courage to report her abusers to the police.

The charity paid for a family holiday for her and her children.

"It is the first time in a long time my kids have seen me happy and relaxed because I was not in the same area of the abusers or where the abuse took place," Jess said.