A group of mothers are helping each other to cope with enforced separation from their children.
Penelope says she counted every single day after her daughter was taken away until they were reunitedSome 21 years ago Penelope's heart broke into pieces and it has never fully healed, she says. Her four-year-old daughter was taken away after a court ruling, leaving her bereft.Penelope, now 58, met her daughter's father while she was living in France, and had moved back to Norfolk alone to bring up their child.
"I was told she could come to emotional harm," she says. "I knew I was a good mother and I didn't deserve this."Penelope takes part in art therapy sessions to help process her enforced separation from her daughter, which has devastated her life The charity runs wellbeing courses, coffee mornings, trips to the zoo and beach, and art therapy sessions, which allow Penelope to release her "anger, tensions and fears"."She called me on her 21st birthday. I had been waiting for that phone call for so many years," says Penelope, breaking into a smile.
"I was sad, depressed and anxious before I started coming here," she says. "I understand the heartache the other women are going through. I like cuddling people. It makes them at peace and it gets them smiling again." Former barrister Cherie Parnell founded Beam in 2015 after years working in the family law courts, where she often represented mothers who would lose their children to the care system.Cherie was a successful barrister before she gave up her career to start the charity
Cherie felt she could no longer leave them at the end of a court case "with a handshake and an expression of regret" and she made the decision to leave her job. There were 82,170 children in care in England last year compared to 75,360 in 2018, according to the Department for Education.
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