A READING-based author has been awarded a BEM in the King’s Birthday Honours list.
Jaime Thurston came to the UK from Australia, and setting in Berkshire. Ten years ago, she created the charity 52 Lives. It aims to change lives through the kindness of strangers. The 44-year-old now serves as its CEO, and it is for her services to charity that she has been given the honour.
It began in November 2013, when she asked people in her community to help provide a rug for a woman whose floor was so badly damaged it was hurting her child’s feet.
The level of support led her to create the 52 Lives network. Every week, it highlights someone who has a need, sharing what is required on social media. That has included helping a homeless mother and son find a flat, building a sensory garden for a Welsh boy, providing carpets and furniture for women and children leaving refuges, sending kind messages to bullied children, and covering bills and food costs for families with seriously-ill children.
It also runs School of Kindness workshops in primary schools, aimed at empowering children to make positive choices to make the world a better place.
And there is also a kindness fund, which helps children spread some happiness in their school or community.
It is also a member of the Anti-Bullying Alliance.
Jaime says she inherently believes kindness has the ability to change lives.
People 52 Lives helps are nominated, mostly from frontline professionals, and all donations given by supporters go those in need.
Ms Thurston has now helped thousands of people in need access help and support and the charity has over 100,000 followers spread across their social media platforms with subscribers from around the world.
To support 52 Lives, Ms Thurston recently wrote Kindness – The Little Thing That Matters Most and The Kindness Journal – Further Spreading The Message Of Kindness.
