Emma Harriet Kirk

20th May 1998 - 27th October 2018

I want to introduce you to my daughter, Emma Harriet Kirk, in whose name this Charity was founded. No one should ever have to write about their child in the past tense.  I do not have the strength to find the words to describe to you who she was, why she was so loved and why she will be forever missed, so it is my intention to share just a few stories and the words of others to give you a brief glimpse of this beautiful soul.

During her very short life Emma did a great deal to challenge oppression in all its forms and she never looked the other way. Here are a few examples:

In 2004 an appeal was set up following the Boxing Day Tsunami. My birthday is New Year’s Eve, and in the New Year Emma and I went into town on a shopping expedition with the money we had both been given for Christmas and me for my birthday. Emma had about £50. The first stop was the Yorkshire bank where I donated my money to the appeal. At 6 years old Emma was very aware of what had happened, and she asked me if she should donate the money she had. I told her it was up to her and that people had given her money to spend as she wished. At 6 years old she chose to forgo a shopping expedition for herself and gave her money to the appeal. My heart swelled with pride and I told her so. I also said, “what you have done Emma will give you a feeling much better than you could have possibly bought in any shops today”. About 3 weeks later I put my beautiful child to bed and as I was leaving her room I could tell something was on her mind. I asked her what was troubling her and she said to me: “Mummy you know when I gave my money to help people who lost everything in the tsunami, you told me I would get a feeling that I couldn't buy in any shops, when am I going to get that feeling?” After I stopped laughing, we talked and Emma recognised that she had already experienced the feeling.

At 17 Emma joined two separate aid convoys to Calais and also worked with ‘City of Sanctuary’, supporting refugees with reading and writing.  Over the Christmas and New Year holiday period Emma would organise packed lunches to be distributed to the homeless and remained continuously amazed at how fast these were taken up.

At the age of 18 Emma intervened when she saw a man beating up a woman as others simply passed by. Emma was just over 5ft and weighed 7 stone. Emma screamed at the man until she interrupted his blows and as he moved away from the woman Emma took the opportunity to step in between them whilst shouting at him; “I am calling the police. You need to leave.” The man left and Emma talked to the very distressed woman about accessing a shelter. The man returned, saying he had ordered a taxi and called the woman to come to him. Again, Emma stood between them and told the man that the woman was going nowhere with him. The police arrived and the man was arrested.

In Emma’s first year at University she telephoned me one night to tell me she had a kidney infection and asked if I could come and keep her company in A&E. Emma had been there an hour already before I got there. It was a long, chaotic, cold, miserable night with lots of people coming and going. There was a young man asleep on the back seats of the waiting room clearly down on his luck. As the evening progressed another young man attempted to use the vending machine without success. He became distressed, not aggressive or loud, but quietly distressed. As I observed the situation, trying to assess if he was drunk, a middle-aged man stepped forward and helped the young man purchase some food and a drink from the machine. All the while he kept looking over at Emma. When he finished helping the young man he looked directly at Emma, Emma smiled and nodded at the man, a beaming smile broke across his face, he put his thumb up and returned Emma’s nod. I sat there witnessing this peculiar interaction and asked Emma what it was all about.

Emma told me that before I had arrived the man was giving the young homeless man on the back seat a hard time and was whipping up hysteria amongst the other people in the waiting room. He was blaming the long waiting time on those 'like' the young man on the back seat. In true Emma style, when no one else felt brave enough to speak up, this 5ft 4in beautiful soul challenged this man's thinking. She pointed out that the reason everyone was waiting was not because of the unfortunate man on the back seat, it was because of the Government cuts. She invited him to share his frustration with the Prime Minister and leave the young man alone. She invited him to realise that he had no idea what the young man's 'back story' was and prompted him to be grateful that he didn't need to take refuge in the city's A&E department for warmth. This conversation about exercising compassion instead of aggression clearly had an impact. The man walked away and came back a short time later with a chocolate cupcake, which he gave to Emma whilst apologising for his behaviour. I do hope that man still takes advantage of the opportunities to help people.

Emma was an inspiration and all who knew her could not fail to be impressed by her values and her acute sense of right and wrong. I loved and admired the depth of Emma's values, she wasn't perfect, but her values were and they never faltered.

Emma was in every way like every other young person out there, but in some ways she was exceptional. It was Emma who opened our eyes to the challenges that all young people face in this modern world and it is her inspiration that drives this Charity to seek change.

– Theresa Kirk, Founder