A Fettes College abuse survivor who was beaten and sexually assaulted has received £400,000 in damages – the first known sum paid by the elite school.
15.05.2022 - 07:17 / dailyrecord.co.uk
A poet whose inspirational verses got celebrities through lockdown is a mum-of-two from Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire.
Before her words went viral, Donna Ashworth hid behind her social media page.
But as soon as they were discovered by the likes of TV hosts Fearne Cotton, Cat Deeley and Lisa Snowdon and actresses Lisa Faulkner and Samia Longchambon, she stepped forward to claim the glory.
The 47-year-old said: “I started to share inspirational quotes other people had written. Then I thought, ‘With some of these quotes, I’m pretty sure I could write them. And if I don’t put my name on them, I won’t be embarrassed.’
"It is embarrassing to start sharing little bits of yourself. So I wrote a few poems and didn’t put my name on them. Then, of course, the minute they went viral, I said it’s mine.”
Now Donna’s fans tell the world about their favourite poet. Snowdon recently posted a clip of herself hugging Donna’s book. Wanted star Tom Parker’s widow, Kelsey, has quoted Donna’s poem I Wish I Knew and she is namechecked twice in Cotton’s new book Bigger Than Us.
Donna has yet to meet any of her famous fans. At the start of lockdown she and husband Robert and their two sons Felix and Brodie had moved home to Scotland from Manchester. Plans to sell their business, a children’s soft play centre, fell through in the face of the pandemic.
She said: “I did what everybody else did – thought, ‘What am I going to do to keep myself sane? I decided to write every day and try to keep everybody afloat.
“I was really worried. We had moved up here. My husband no longer had a job. I had a Facebook page with a few thousand followers. I had to turn that into money.
“I put myself fully to that in lockdown and it just snowballed and spiralled.”
So Donna
A Fettes College abuse survivor who was beaten and sexually assaulted has received £400,000 in damages – the first known sum paid by the elite school.
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