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Nexa and friends enjoy lunch at HMP Styal with the Clink Charity and Standing Tall Foundation
Our CEO Nigel Clark was delighted to host lunch for 40 guests at The Clink restaurant, in the unique setting of the old prison chapel of HMP Styal on 15 June.
The event was part of Nexa’s ESG programme and held in support of The Clink Charity (which works to reduce reoffending by providing prisoners with accredited City and Guilds qualifications) and the Standing Tall Foundation which promotes mental and physical health to all communities.
There are currently 480 female prisoners at Styal and about 10 of them, who are studying catering NVQs, cooked and served our excellent two course lunch.
Over lunch, we heard from our three fantastic speakers Andy Reid MBE, Victoria Morrison-Hughes and Chrissie Wolfe.
Andy Reid set up the Standing Tall Foundation in March 2020 with his friend and charity CEO, John Tabern who was also at the lunch. Andy has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds doing arduous physical challenges including being the first British triple amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro last year.
Andy shared his inspirational story, from the challenges he faced joining the army, his ‘bad day at the office’ when he stepped on a landmine while on patrol in Helmand province, Afghanistan in 2009 and lost both legs and an arm, his struggle to become mobile again and being able to walk up the aisle to marry his wife Claire in 2011.
Victoria then spoke about the new obligations for solicitors when working with vulnerable witnesses which was very useful for all the solicitors in the room. Victoria is a costs lawyer with her own business, Integral Legal Costs and she works closely in partnership with Nexa.
Finally, Chrissie, who was diagnosed with ADHD last year, shared her journey to becoming a solicitor with Irwin Mitchell and her career since then, becoming a mentor to future and young solicitors.
She described how the industry is opening up, improving its diversity and giving more options for solicitors to pursue the careers and the lives that they want to lead. Chrissie is one of the UK’s leading influencers – she has over 100,000 followers across her You Tube channel and social media platforms – and is a regular speaker at industry events.
Nigel said: “The food served at the ESG lunch at Styal was superb and it was great to enjoy it in such a unique venue, which was a first for me, and I suspect, most of our guests! I’d like to thank our speakers for such fascinating talks that provided much inspiration for us all. I was delighted that so many guests were able to join us and that we were able to support two such worthy charities through this event. At Nexa we are truly committed to our ESG agenda and look forward to taking this even further in the future.”