Lancaster exhibition paints stark picture of lives affected by domestic abuse

To mark 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, a United Nations campaign launched in 1991, Dr Anna Hopkins is holding a shoe exhibition at the Gregson Centre.

Sixteen pairs of shoes are being exhibited, with eight red pairs telling the stories of eight women and children who have been killed by domestic violence and eight blue pairs telling the stories of those women who took their own lives as a result of the domestic violence they had experienced.

In the UK, every two days a woman is murdered as a result of domestic violence and it is estimated around three women a week die by suicide as a result of domestic violence with a further estimation that 30 victims of domestic violence attempt suicide every week.

Entitled Hidden in Plain Sight of us All, the exhibition is available to see until December 10 in the top bar of the Gregson Centre at 33 Moorgate.

In addition to the exhibition, Anna – a lecturer at the Open University who actively researches domestic abuse – has been running 5km every day, totalling 80km in the 16-day period.

Each run is dedicated to one of the women's stories that are being told in the shoe exhibition.

Anna is raising money for AAFDA – a unique service offering specialist and expert advocacy and peer support to families in England and Wales who are bereaved following fatal domestic abuse.

They advocate for families during the statutory process that takes place after a death following domestic abuse and support them beyond.

You can support Anna online at https://www.justgiving.com/page/anna-hopkins-1700484990552