Boiling Frogs

A story about growing up in the shadow of domestic violence by BAFTA Award-winning screenwriter, Kayleigh Llewellyn,  performed by Natasha Sparkes.

"We had a few places we’d go. Turn up at my nana’s, clutching our bin bags, her in her dressing gown. Or we’d go to my Aunties. Or if it was one of the occasions my brother wasn’t in prison or living on the streets, we’d go to whatever bedsit he had.

And d’you know what I remember feeling in those moments…? Not glad to be alive. Not happy to be safe. Nah. I felt pathetic. Dirty. Sick to my stomach that we didn’t have a home anymore. That we had to beg to be let into someone else’s. 10 years old but I knew what shame tasted like.”

Boiling Frogs highlights the link between domestic violence and homelessness. 40% of women cite domestic abuse as a contributing factor to their homelessness. This issue affects whole families, with 145,000 children currently growing up in unsafe and unsuitable accommodation. Unfortunately, 70% of Brits don’t consider this a form of homelessness.