CityLife

Different words in tribute to Sophie

Julie Hesmondhalgh

When schoolgirl and goth Sophie Lancaster was murdered in a Rossendale park in 2007, tributes to the teenager poured in from all over the world.

Her mum, Sylvia, responded by setting up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation in memory of her daughter to campaign for hate crime legislation to be introduced into British law and to run an educational programme in schools to challenge prejudice and intolerance aimed at alternative cultures.

Many famous names offered their support to the charity, some hosting their own fundraising and awareness events. And next week, Coronation Street actress Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley Cropper) will bring her Sophie Lancaster Creative Writing Competition to a close with a star-studded awards show at Contact Theatre.

Earlier this year, Julie and her writer husband Ian Kershaw sent out invitations to state secondary schools across Greater Manchester, East Lancashire, Blackburn and Darwen inviting pupils to write a piece of poetry or prose on the subject of difference.

Julie knew the children would produce some compelling responses but she had no idea how many would respond or how good the responses would be.

“It was very hard – we started absolutely from scratch with no idea where we were going,” Julie laughs. “I had to handwrite all the letters to the schools and lots of things get lost in schools so we weren’t even sure who would take part.

“So we were really chuffed with the number of entries – we got 1033 in the end. We had loads and loads of judges lined up to read the entries; that many people wanted to help, it was wonderful. We got a few entries from people who had entered independently of their school and weirdly the first two entries myself and my husband opened have made it right through to the end shortlist.

“You can imagine, we were opening them up thinking, ‘Wow... this is really good’, but we had no idea what the quality would be – it’s really hard to judge at first what’s brilliant and what isn’t!

“We whittled it down to 26 and sent those out to our super judges, which included Peter Hook, Itch from King Blues, the BAFTA winning actress Vicky McClure and the poet Simon Armitage.

“Anybody who’s part of an alternative culture have really felt the impact of this case, of such a beautiful young life snuffed out just because she was different.

“Obviously, the work of the foundation is partly to get into schools, specifically with Year 7s, to talk about difference and not judging a book by its cover. This has opened it out a little bit further to the older age groups.”
The awards show, says Julie, is a moment intended to mark the hard work and inspirational pieces written by the 26 shortlisted finalists, 10 of which will be read out on the night by some of Julie’s fellow Corrie cast members and pals from TV.

Corrie’s Katherine Kelly (Becky McDonald), Katy Cavanagh (Julie Carp), Mikey North (Gary Windass) and his screen mum Debbie Rush (Anna Windass), Nikki Patel (Amber Kalirai), Cherylee Houston (Izzy Armstrong), Paula Lane (Kylie Turner) and Jennie McAlpine (Fiz Stape) will all be performing.

They are joined by Waterloo Road’s William Rush (Josh Stevenson) and Shameless star Sally Carman (Kelly Maguire) to read five selections from the 11-13 age category and another five entries from the 14-16 age
category. All 26 shortlisted entries have been compiled in a book, titled,
Sophie, published by competition judge and poet Mike Garry through his own Cheers Ta Publications imprint and Pelican Publications.

The finalists will all receive a copy of the book plus a £20 prize, while the winner of each age category will receive £100, a trophy and £1,000 for their school.

The book will also be sold for £5.99 through the Sophie Lancaster Foundation website at sophielancasterfoundation.com. It includes a list of the all the schools who entered and a foreword from Sylvia Lancaster.

“There’s some beautiful language and beautiful imagery around the subject of difference,” Julie enthuses about the pieces included in the book.

“There’s one that has got five voices in it, inspired by a true story about a Chinese ballerina with one arm – and it’s such a celebration of difference and overcoming prejudice to achieve your dream that it’s gorgeous.

“We want the night to be a real celebration of what the children have done and what a massive achievement it is,” says Julie.

“We wanted to make it as special as we could so I’m trying to get as many people as I can to come along to make it really star-studded, and anyone can buy tickets for the night because we want it to be packed.

“The competition has been a lot of work but I think we’d like to be able to do this bi-annually.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding; even picking the music, we were getting a bit teary thinking about them coming up to get their award.”

Sophie Lancaster Creative Writing Competition prize-giving event, Contact Theatre, Tuesday (8pm), £5. For tickets ring 0161 274 0600.