A Swindon charity has given its support to Queen Camilla following a documentary on her work to tackle domestic abuse.

The programme, Her Majesty: Behind Closed Doors, followed the Queen over the past year as she worked to combat the issue, and aired on Monday, November 11.

Earlier in the year, Queen Camilla visited Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Service.

During her visit, she listened to the teams working with young people and offenders to educate and prevent reoffending.

Kate Rowland, the charity's interim CEO, said: "The documentary highlighted alarming figures on the extent of domestic abuse within our society, including that two women a week are killed as a result of domestic abuse and that 25 per cent of girls aged 13-17 have experienced the use of physical force in a relationship.

(L-R) Louisa Wrighton, Open2Change manager at SWA/SDASS, Kate Rowland, interim CEO, and Emma Maclennan, CYP manager(L-R) Louisa Wrighton, Open2Change manager at SWA/SDASS, Kate Rowland, interim CEO, and Emma Maclennan, CYP manager (Image: Stephen Baron) "However, we weren’t surprised to hear the brave and harrowing survivor stories included in the programme; every day women and men across Swindon tell us similar accounts of the abuse they’ve experienced.

"As shown in the documentary, domestic abuse affects people of all ages and from all walks of life, and we are hearing from increasing numbers of young people who are experiencing abuse within their relationships."

She continued: "When the Queen visited us earlier this year, she was very interested to hear about what we’re doing to combat domestic abuse.

"She spoke with our teams across our Open2Change programme, which works with perpetrators to prevent reoffending, and our HOPE programme, that works across schools to educate young people to understand what makes a healthy relationship and hopefully prevent them entering an abusive relationship in the future."

With domestic abuse affecting around one in five people in the UK, Ms Rowland encouraged people to ask themselves the question "what if it had been my daughter?" - something the Queen also encouraged in the documentary.

Ms Rowland added: "The true extent of domestic abuse in our society is alarming as much still goes unspoken.

"Our goal is to create a society without domestic abuse and we can only do this by stopping the silence too.

"Across Swindon we have community and business ambassadors who are talking about the issue and are able to show people where to find support.

"By speaking openly about abuse we can go a long way to reduce and remove the stigma.

"Like the Queen, we want to obliterate domestic abuse and we believe it can be achieved through conversation, education, early intervention, and prevention.”

Help support trusted local news

Sign up for a digital subscription now: https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/subscribe/

As a digital subscriber, you will get:            

  • Unlimited access to the Swindon Advertiser website        
  • Advert-light access             
  • Reader rewards             
  • Full access to our app