Black Roses - Four Years since the Death of Sophie Lancaster

Serious post today, folks. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the tragedy of Sophie Lancaster's death, four years ago today. There weere some interesting programmes on BBC Radio 4 today to mark the anniversary: Black Roses is a Play for Today featuring interviews with Sophie's mother Sylvia, who runs the brilliant SOPHIE campaign, and heart-rending poetry by Simon Armitage, who has lent his support to the charity. Be warned, you'll cry your eyes dry listening to it, it's powerful stuff. There was also "The Black Roses Debate"; an open debate on the subject of hate crimes, the definition of the term and looking at Sophie's death as the result of hate crime. I'm listening to it now on iPlayer, very thought provoking stuff.

These two programmes will be on iPlayer for a week, so listen while you can. As always, you can donate to the charity via their website, or by buying something from its official merchandise site, buying the Hope charity record, or selected products from Illamasqua. They do amazing work. I'll leave you with a little video that shows what the charity have achieved so far and what their goals are.