#TieforHelena

#TieForHelena

Today, I'm wearing a #TieForHelena. My friend Patrick wrote about Helena last week. She lives in Tooting, which is close to where I live and somewhere I pass through several times a week. She was attacked just yards from her home at 5pm in the afternoon on 9th December. it wouldn't even have been fully dark at that time and the street would have been lit.  She believes her attacker singled her out because she was 'rocking a tie'.

From the Evening Standard article:“Helena Martins, 43, who lost her hearing five years ago to Ménière's disease, was cornered by the man as she walked home through Tooting last night.  

Moments before, she had removed her cochlea implant, which she relies on to hear, as she approached her house.  

The man hit her in the eye and choked her with her polka dot tie, which she believes marked her out as gay, and her implant dropped on the floor.”

Being attacked for who you are or what you’re wearing has no place in London or anywhere else for that matter. And for that reason, I’m joining the campaign and wearing a #TieForHelena.