The second part of my story started with the need to make something positive out of such a horrid situation.
The main motivation, after being told that nothing could be done to prosecute this man, was to try and ensure that this didn’t happen to other people. I had been through hell and back emotionally and the risks he had put my health at through his deception were horrifying.
It was now that I decided to attempt to get the law changed. I had been asked to think about doing some press before this (as my ‘Catfish’ had such a prominent job) but I didn’t want to. However, thoughts turning to starting a petition meant that the press was a great way to kick start that and make it public. Telling my story was a way to promote the petition.
It all started in my local paper… Kent Messenger and the journalist Alex Claridge.
So on the 23rd February 2017, KM printed my story in their local papers and online. I also did a video for them outlining my goals and aims with the petition and why I was so passionate about seeing this through.
By that evening, my story was in every National Newspaper, including ‘The Guardian’, the ‘The Times’ and BBC news.
Someones clever little software programme told me that by May, my story had been published in various forms over 750 times globally. I could never have imagined my story, could get shared so far, but it did and what a journey it started.