‘Run for Redfern’: more than 60 joggers join Leicester fundraising challenge in memory of much-loved former DMU student

By Alfie Linville-Sibley

The second annual ‘Run for Redfern’ arrived at the steps of the De Montfort University student union at the weekend as scores of joggers honoured the memory of much-loved DMU alumnus Adam Redfern.

The air was filled with cheers and applause on Sunday as students, staff, and Adam’s friends crossed the finish line, blazing red in their ‘Run for Redfern’ tees, after the completing the 5km course across Leicester from Victoria Park to the heart of the DMU campus. 

More than 60 runners took part in the run, raising up to £1,500 for the Adam Redfern Memorial Fund, which provides a student scholarship and aims to make DMU a ‘heart safe campus’. Adam died of a sudden heart attack while out jogging in March 2021. He was just 28.

After starting at 11am, all the runners were over the line by noon. Following the race, Adam’s parents, Christine and Ian Redfern, gave a short speech to the runners in the DSU in front of a banner bearing a picture of their son.

“We wanted to give everybody a chance to run and remember Adam this year, and seeing this growth in just one year is amazing,” Ian said.

The first ‘Run for Redfern was held in 2022, with eight of Adam’s friends running on a sponsorship basis. Between them, they raised £3,000 for the memorial fund.

Elgan Hughes, one of those original eight, said: “Seeing so many students sat in the Union on a cold Sunday morning like this is amazing. After last year we realised Adam deserved something bigger to remember him, so we decided to open it up to everyone this year.”

“Hopefully next year everyone that’s here today will bring a friend along, and then the same will happen the year after, that’s the ultimate goal,” Elgan said.

“It was a big job to organise this, between the council and the staff at the Union and De Montfort everybody involved was fantastic. Hopefully, we’ll see you all again next March for an even bigger Run for Redfern,” Ian Redfern said.

Adam Redfern

The memorial fund keeps Adam’s memory alive by creating opportunities for students with a flair for journalism, media or sport through a scholarship, allowing third-year students the chance to pursue their passions.

Adam, who has been described as “the best of DMU in one person”, was a Journalism (BA) graduate who went on to work as part of the Student Union and later joined DMU’s social media team.

Christine Redfern said: “The first scholarship has gone out this year to a film student, and seeing what she’s doing with the opportunity is amazing.”

The memorial foundation is also aiming to fund the installation and related training for on-campus defibrillators to make DMU ‘heart safe’ and raise awareness for SADS (sudden arrhythmic death syndrome), when someone dies following an unexplained cardiac arrest.

Runner Richard Bowden, a former colleague of Adam’s, said: “Adam was always looking for opportunities to support students. He made lots of DSU roles paid so students would be more rewarded and the DSU would be better staffed.”

Click here to make a donation to the Adam Redfern Memorial Fund.

Cover me: winner of the DMU Journalism Magazine Cover Prize revealed

MAGnificent: the contenders in this year’s DMU Journalism cover prize competition

After much chin-stroking and deliberation, we can finally reveal the winner of the DMU Journalism Best Cover competition.

*Drum roll*

Enter Ricky Gervais in a tux and half a lager. There are some rude gags about students who didn’t turn up for their lessons, the perpetually broken coffee machine and lecturers and their bad jokes – and then, thankfully, it’s straight down to business.

Ladies and gentleman.

Finally… we have a winner in the third year PJ3 Best Magazine Cover of the Year competition.

The winner of the DMU Journalism Magazine Cover of 2022, as judged by FourFourTwo writer and deputy editor, Joe Brewin is … Twenty One.

‘IT MAKES ME WANT TO LOOK INSIDE & READ IT’: That was the view of our judge, Joe Brewin, deputy editor of FourFourTwo magazine

Congratulations to third year students Seema Mian, Samantha Johnston, Arabelle Akinfe and Lauren Sadler who scoop the annual prize of £200. (Editor’s note: You have to split that between you, by the way – it’s not each. Sorry.) 

Joe Brewin, who came to DMU earlier in the year to give a talk to students on effective magazine designs, said he was impressed with the quality of work on show this year.

“It was a tough competition to judge and difficult pick a winner,” he said. “It was very tight.”

So what did he make of this year’s cover stars?

“I would say, in summing up, that Adore comes with the good hook of a cover star and some nice lines, but perhaps they’re a little bit lost with the white-on-white design,” he said.

Gen Fem looks smart but is probably a little generic with its offerings on the top strap – I like to know a little bit more on the stories am I actually going to find inside? 

Ocio is probably the strongest in terms of layout and compelling cover lines, but the cover story is perhaps on the weaker side and looks a bit like a travel brochure?

Taboob – fair play on taking the plunge with that name, and it’s arguably the most striking design of the lot on the newsstand. But does it have enough hooks?

“And then Twenty One: this has the best cover shot, and a couple of really solid, compelling cover lines, but perhaps not the best font. 

“So, on that basis, I’m going to very narrowly give it to Twenty One – it’s got some attitude, the colour should pop on a newsstand and, ultimately, it makes me want to go look inside and read the stories.”

Seema Mian, one of the writers/designers of TwentyOne, said she was proud and delighted that her group scooped the award.

“Aw, I just feel so happy to have won this and so proud of the group – Samantha, Lauren and Arabelle.” she said.

WINNERS: The journalists behind Twenty One magazine. From left to right, Lauren Sadler, Samantha Johnston, Seema Mian and Arabelle Akinfe.

“It was a good group, we got on well, we worked hard and there were some good stories and nice designs in Twenty One so I’m so pleased all that has been recognised.

“When I finally received the magazine, it was so satisfying seeing the stories and design in print. It made them come alive. It looked and felt like a proper magazine.

“The girl on the cover is a model. I showed it to her and she was pleased with it she wanted a copy, too. I hope that’s a good sign of how effective it was.”

Q&A: Sky News news editor gives current De Montfort University students a fascinating insight to the world of broadcast journalism

Former DMU student Annie Green returns to Leicester


De Montfort University graduate Annie Green shared her story of life in the journalism industry with current students during an inspirational talk on Wednesday.
Graduating in 2013, Annie has gone on to work for the Norwich Evening News, BBC Radio
Leicester and Global Radio, most recently landing the role of news editor at Sky News.
Following her talk, the English Language and Journalism graduate sat down with Tom Carter to provide some further words of wisdom:
Q: It’s your first return to campus for almost a decade – what has it been like being back
at DMU
?
A: Great but really strange! Some of the buildings on campus haven’t changed at all. I walked
back through the doors of the Clephan Building and had to pinch myself, thinking how nine
years ago I was sitting in the student seats watching and listening to people in the industry. The
fact I’ve been asked back to do a talk – what an honour.
Q: You were heavily involved in the Demon Media Group during your years here. Do you
have a personal highlight from your time in the society?

A: The fact we hosted the Student Radio Conference was brilliant. It brought us so many
benefits, such as going to drinks with industry professionals, where I got to network and which
ultimately helped me get my first demo listened to. Also, every week we had a news show,
putting in the extra time to go out and gather content, which was really fun. There was a good
camaraderie within the team, and I really developed as a journalist.
Q: Recent years have been an especially turbulent time to be in education – what would
your advice be to current students at DMU?
A: I would definitely say that work experience got me in the door for my first job, as not only did I
gain such valuable skills but I also started to learn what I wanted to do (for a career). Did I want
to go into print journalism, or radio, or TV? It gave me the opportunity to try everything and
helped me realise I love radio. Trying to find work experience is the best advice I can give
because while it takes a lot of determination and commitment in your holidays, you will definitely
reap the rewards.

Sky News news editor Annie Green, back where it all began for her at De Montfort University


Read more on Annie’s career and return to DMU here:
https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2022/january/sky-news-editor-shares-key-to-success-w
ith-dmu-students.aspx

Witness to terror: ‘There was a lot of screaming. I’ll never forget the fear in the eyes of the police’

‘In situations of terror, you get the heroes, the quiet ones, and the people who completely lose their minds’: Paul Millar remembers the terrifying day he was trapped inside Parliament during the 2017 Westminster attack.

One foot in front of the other. He maintains a nervous pace until he reaches his office, writes Will Millar. A helicopter hovers above the building. He can see it clearly on the television in the corner of the room.

Every single office door is bolted shut and a deathly silence starts to emerge. On a normal day, the sound of chatter, laughter, and division bells ring through the palace of Westminster. Today, a policeman has been stabbed to death.

Paul Millar, who was just 24 when the Westminster terror attack took place in 2017, had only been working in Parliament for six months, as a researcher for the late Paul Flynn.

When the job got too chaotic, he’d sit alone in the atrium of Portcullis House, sipping a coffee, amongst the tranquil setting of trees and distant chatter.

That’s where he was when the sound of gunshots rattled through the atrium. That grim afternoon in March, there were six victims. Five innocent adults and a killer shot dead on the grounds of Parliament.

“There was a lot of screaming. The police officers were running, trying to keep everyone away from the entrance,” he says. “The fear in their eyes will always be stuck in my memory.”

Escorted to safety, Paul and his colleague Kathy hid underneath a table in the office. The chaos soon faded and was replaced by a tense stillness, where the slamming of every office door mimicked that of a prison cell.

“The feeling in the building was that this was only going to get worse,” he says. “Rumours were going around that there were bombs in abandoned cars. Even my dad texted me saying there’s a gunman in the building. It was terrifying.”

After a while, Paul was moved to a safer environment. Though, the new location, identified by its single-glazed windows and fragile structure, left him feeling even more anxious.

News channels relentlessly covered the event and started to identify the policeman that had been stabbed – PC Keith Palmer.

“I knew Keith Palmer. He was someone I used to walk past. Someone I used to speak to. A lot of people did,” he says.

With nothing to eat but some Rowntree fruit pastels from a near-empty vending machine, Paul started to observe the odd behaviour of those around him.

“I recall a few people who wouldn’t stop playing with the TV sets. They were obsessed with changing the channel,” he says.

“In situations of terror, you get the heroes, the quiet ones, and the people who completely lose their minds.”

Five hours had passed, and Paul could leave, he shuffled through a cowshed of journalists and reporters. On his long walk home, he passed Huw Edwards, setting up scene on Westminster bridge. Ready to deliver a united 10 o’clock news.

The following morning was eerily quiet in Westminster. Abandoned cars. Police tape. The palace had been choked of its personality. No bells. No laughter. No Chatter. Security no longer greeted Paul but grilled him on arrival.

Just a couple months later, a snap general election was called, and Paul was plunged into the chaos of campaigning. He tried to come to terms with the attacks, but he was restless and so were his colleagues.

One night, whilst campaigning in his MP´s constituency. Paul was sat in the back of a car driven by a colleague, when they crashed at a road junction and the car was sent spiralling out of control. “Inches more and we would have died,” he says.

That election campaign was littered with traumatic events and Paul vividly remembers these months being the hardest. Hearing about the Manchester Arena bombing, and the London Bridge attacks forced Paul to relive that horrible day inside Westminster.

Upon returning to London, Paul started to notice his mental health deteriorate. He recalls arming himself with a tennis racket on the tubes, in case he was attacked.  In Parliament, he started to experience symptoms of Post-traumatic stress-disorder (PTSD).

The sound of a hoover echoed the screams in the atrium. The cleaners in the corridor slowly morphed into police running up and down the building. Paul realised these triggers were sinking deeper into his conscious.

One day, after settling into a new role, he fell ill.

“I felt faint and my body was taken over with adrenaline. My face was bloated and pale. I thought I was having a heart attack,” he says.

What Paul experienced, was the beginnings of a panic attack. A very severe panic attack. He recalls the security guards. Fully grown men. Weeping as they watched on. His vulnerable mind started to play tricks on him, and he was cast back to the events of the attack.

“What happened during that panic attack proved that I’d completely lost my mind,” he says. “I thought the Russians had poisoned the water in the Parliamentary estate. That was my only explanation.”

Paul scrunches his face, as he explains the horrors, he felt during the panic attack. He remembers feeling that his death was certain. He even started to prepare his final wishes.

After being taken to hospital, Paul was diagnosed with PTSD and a severe anxiety disorder. He soon left Parliament and moved back in with his parents. For him, this was a safer, more secure place.

His overall health had been chipped away at but months of cognitive behaviour therapy helped him get back to his feet. Though, the effects were still long lasting and sleep became his only medication.

It has been more than four years since the Westminster attack. He no longer visits the city. Paul now works as a councillor for East Devon District Council, 200 miles from London.

Recovery is slow and he often laments that afternoon. That grim afternoon in March, where five innocent lives were taken.

Paul may never look past his own trauma, but he is insistent that each person, affected by the attack, should look after oneself.

“I like to remind myself of the instructions from cabin crew to air travellers. Put your own oxygen mask on, before helping others,” he said.

Five Get #Cancelled on Social Media: is it okay to enjoy classic children’s stories written by authors who had bigoted views?

Photo by Corrie Barklimore. flickr.com/photos/80144821@N00/2767723506

Last night I broke the lockdown rules, writes Nikita Sharma. I went to a place I have been visiting since I was a child. Kirrin Island. I spent my time jumping over rocks encasing natural pools of crystal-clear water and feeling the soft as powder sand beneath my feet as I explored the castle ruins.

Of course, I wasn’t there physically but who said you couldn’t feel something so vividly so wholly, you feel as if you were truly there?

I think that’s the magic of books. The ability they have to transport you to a different time and different land. That’s what I like best about the children’s books I still keep close to my heart. But whilst reading them in these past few years, I’ve had guilt and outrage swirling inside and then like smoke, hanging over me.

Finding out your favourite childhood authors held racist and sexist views and realising now that they incorporated those views into their writing? It doesn’t feel good. And rereading today, you can see a line here and there not sitting right, suddenly you see the hidden messages and understand the double meanings.

Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl. These were my heroes. Their works are legendary.

It really is upsetting thinking that if I were to meet my favourite childhood writer, they probably wouldn’t like me very much. And the reasons would simply be because of the colour of my skin.

Being a woman of colour, issues like these really mess with my conscience. But I can celebrate the books that mean so much to me without excusing the person behind them

Someone of my generation shouldn’t be enjoying these books after finding out the truth. Nowadays, typed in bold HASHTAG CANCELLED on social media platforms is the only direction you need to know what persons should be avoided. Everything is either black or white. But it was one of the things that welcomed me with a warm embrace. The words called me back.

And it wasn’t just me – millions of others felt it too! Introducing us to a world of giants and witches and made-up nonsense languages to decoding secret messages and catching smugglers; these books had humour and originality, they encouraged us to broaden our imaginations.

So, we have these clearly wonderful pieces of works unfortunately written by problematic people, what do we do? Is this just a case of separating the art from the artist?

Should we even judge people for ideals that were the norm to have ‘back in the day’ with values we hold today? Was Roald Dahl and his anti-Semitism simply a product of his time? These are outdated views, and we must accept that it was a different time.

But this frame of debate takes me back to the essay I was forced to write on Winston Churchill a few years ago. I remember my blood boiling as my teacher chattered about what a great man he was, knowing his racist views and inactions were to blame for the three million people who starved to death during the Bengal Famine.

However, apart from collecting ‘woke points’ on Twitter, holding dead writers accountable isn’t doing much. It gives no productive support to movements and organisations that aim for change. Being a woman of colour, issues like these really mess with my conscience and to ‘forgive and forget’ isn’t something I can apply. But balance is helpful. I can celebrate the books that mean so much to me without excusing the person behind them.

We can enjoy literature and art that have outdated views as long as we accept that they are just that, outdated, while we work towards creating pieces that are tolerant, kind, and fair to all.    And with that, I’ll be off on my next adventure! So long.