Sir Patrick Stewart

I have to admit, I have long had a somewhat inappropriate crush on Patrick Stewart. Of course, he plays Jean-Luc Picard to a wonderful level, a character that I have always admired.

Sir Patrick Stewart - taken from Wikipedia

He has never shied away from Sci-Fi, playing a magnificent Professor Xavier in the X Men series, he is a serious acTOR as well, from Shakespeare to Beckett. Both of which I studied in detail at the University of Huddersfield, where the great man himself grew up and he is Chancellor.

Then today I read this article by him in the Guardian Domestic Violence blighted my home, that’s why I support Refuge. He writes so eloquently on the subject and almost moved me to tears.

The financial footing of women’s charities has been shaky for many years; now it is in real danger of slipping into the abyss. Let me be quite clear about what is at stake here. Without services such as refuges, more women and children will be trapped in violent relationships. Domestic violence rarely peters out. On the contrary, abuse tends to escalate over time. If they can’t get help – preferably at the earliest opportunity – their stories may well have the most tragic of conclusions.

I often try not to  find out too much about people that I admire, because so often one is disappointed at home much of an idiot they turn out to be. Which is why I did not know this, or that he has a Scholarship in his name at the University of Huddersfield to fund postgraduate research on domestic violence, nor that he made a film about domestic violence for Amnesty International.

So, now, my inappropriate crush has become rather overwhelmed by admiration for a man that is prepared to stand up and talk about a difficult issue and raise awareness for women’s charities.