2025 Tenacious Campaigner Award Winners
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Esther Ghey
Esther Ghey founded the Brianna Ghey Legacy Project, working to protect young people's mental health and digital wellbeing after losing her daughter Brianna to violence linked to online harm.
Esther's Award will support her campaign for a statutory ban of phones in schools along with government funding for lockable solutions -
Alex Lloyd Hunter
Alex Lloyd Hunter is a campaigner and founder of The Dad Shift, fighting for better paternity leave in the UK, which currently has the worst statutory provision in Europe.
Alex’s Award will help secure longer, better paid leave during Labour’s parental leave review, mobilising 20,000+ supporters and 40+ MPs to remove barriers that keep fathers from active childcare. -
Ann-Marie Ashton
Ann-Marie Ashton is a PhD researcher fighting for gambling reform after losing her husband Luke to gambling-related suicide in 2021.
Annie's Award will support a campaign to transform UK gambling laws, promoting public health over industry profits. The campaign will establish a national database to properly record gambling-related deaths, holding operators and regulators accountable through legal challenges and research. -
Faron Paul
Faron Paul is a campaigner and founder of Fazamnesty UK, fighting knife crime through education and community action after being stabbed nine times on two separate occasions while protecting others.
Faron's Award will support Fazamnesty's work removing weapons from streets (10,000+ knives collected), delivering workshops to young people, and providing life saving equipment and training to communities most at risk. -
Fiona Laskaris
Fiona Laskaris is campaigning to reform Mental Capacity law after her 24-year-old autistic son was exploited and murdered in 2016 following failures to assess his capacity and safeguard him.
Fiona’s Award will support her push for an amendment to the Mental Capacity Act 2005, giving families the right to proper assessments to prevent further avoidable deaths. -
Georgia Richards
Georgia Richards is an academic scientist, researcher and founder of the Preventable Deaths Tracker, which uses information from death investigations to drive action that saves lives.
Georgia's Award will support the Preventable Deaths Tracker's mission to reduce avoidable harm by enabling learning from death investigations, developing new dashboards, and providing evidence for death prevention to inform policy that can protect vulnerable populations. -
Joanna Cruse
Joanna Cruse is a campaigner and founder of Delivering Better, a grassroots movement of mothers, midwives and allies demanding safe, compassionate maternity care after experiencing traumatic birth herself.
Jo’s Tenacious Award will support work to transform UK maternity care around three core rights – consent, dignity and knowledge – combining lived experience with strategic advocacy so mothers’ voices shape childbirth’s future. -
Maya Esslemont
Maya Esslemont founded After Exploitation, exposing how survivors of modern slavery are locked up under immigration powers, denied support, and criminalised for crimes they were forced to commit.
Maya's Award will support the After Exploitation's work using Freedom of Information Requests and national journalism to ensure survivor voices shape policy change through data transparency and evidence based advocacy. -
Project Resist
Project Resist is collaborating with bereaved families affected by domestic abuse-related suicides. Their aim is to build a movement for justice in the wake of evidence showing that these deaths now outnumber domestic homicides.
The Award will support the Suicide is Homicide campaign which calls for adequate police investigation and CPS responses underpinned by the recognition that suicide in domestic abuse contexts are potential homicides. -
UNGRIPP
The United Group for Reform of IPP (UNGRIPP) is a grassroots campaigning organisation pushing for changes to the Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection (IPP), a sentence abolished in 2012, but not repealed for those already serving it.
The award will support UNGRIPP’s push for resentencing nearly 3,000 people still serving IPP sentences, through research, political lobbying, and exhibitions centring voices of those directly affected.
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“Being tenacious means never giving up, even when life feels overwhelming or unfair. It’s pushing forward when the easier choice would be to stop. It's staying true to my values, and turning pain into motivation to create change and make a lasting difference for others.”
Esther Ghey, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious is the willingness to try, fail, learn, adjust, and go again. Change is rarely easy, so campaigners need the ability to see each setback or misfire not as a signal to give up, but as an opportunity to learn and come back stronger. ”
Alex Lloyd Hunter, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“This award is recognition of the campaigning that I have done so far around gambling reform and will help me continue to push for changes that I believe can save lives. I feel completely honoured. Thank you!”
Ann-Marie Ashton, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious means never giving up, no matter how tough it gets. Every weapon surrendered, every young person steered away from violence reminds me why I keep pushing forward.”
Faron Paul, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious means never giving up fighting in my son’s memory. We want a change in the law to make sure vulnerable people’s mental capacity is appropriately assessed when necessary, and parents’ concerns are properly taken into account.”
Fiona Laskaris, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious means remaining resilient, optimistic, and bold, particularly when the path forward is unclear, uncertain, challenging and complex.”
Georgia Richards, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious is both about having the audacity to believe in a vision of something better, and being able to use the strength of that conviction as fuel to create change. ”
Joanna Cruse, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious means fighting for a future that we know to be fair, just, and dignified, not just the changes which are easiest to achieve or the most politically expedient.”
Maya Esslemont, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being part of the Tenacious community means drawing strength and inspiration from like-minded campaigners fighting for truth and justice in an increasingly hostile and anti-human rights climate. Together we are strong and powerful.”
Project Resist, Tenacious Award Winner 2025
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“Being tenacious is refusing to be forgotten. It's the enduring hope of those still trapped by a sentence that no longer exists, and the relentless campaigning of their families and supporters who refuse to give up. Tenacity is what keeps our work going.”
UNGRIPP, Tenacious Award Winner 2025